What is the safest way to store passwords?

As the threat of cybercrime intensifies, it’s never been more important to keep passwords safe. Over the past year, savvy criminals have been leveraging the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the rise in remote work to breach user credentials like never before — according to the 2020 Microsoft Digital Defense Report, 70% of cyber attacks now take the form of credential phishing and BEC (business email compromise). 

Secure passwords form the most basic foundation of cybersecurity, yet so many of us are still guilty of using the same password across multiple accounts or relying on easy-to-guess options. One of the most common excuses for this is the difficulty of remembering multiple complex passwords. When trickier combinations are used, the problem lies in how to keep track of passwords safely. 

Poor password security can result in credentials being breached and sold on the dark web, where criminals will leverage them for activities like credential stuffing, which targets users who reuse a password on multiple accounts. This is easily remedied by password managers, which offer the best place to store passwords online safely. 

What is a password manager?

A password manager is an application that securely stores your credentials for multiple online accounts. If you’re wondering, “Is password storing online safe?”, the answer is yes — if done correctly. A good management tool will provide the option to auto-generate strong passwords, which are then stored in an encrypted database protected by a master password. This, in turn, should be secured using multi-factor authentication (MFA), which demands an additional form of authorization beyond your password, such as a fingerprint scan or a code sent to your phone.

Since they offer the best way to store passwords securely, password managers are an essential tool for growing SMBs. By making it easy to store usernames and passwords, they encourage the use of complex passwords and prevent employees from storing credentials in unsecured locations, such as on post-it notes or in Word documents. 

Most password managers offer a limited free version, but businesses can benefit greatly from multi-account, paid options. These allow for secure password sharing and company-wide password management, which is great for setting master password complexity rules, changing passwords, and controlling access to sensitive information.

What is a good app to store passwords?

Now we’ve established how to store passwords safely, let’s take a look at which password manager is the best fit for your business. We’ve done a comparison of four of the best-known and most trustworthy tools: 1Password, LastPass, DashLane, and Keeper, so you can decide where to save passwords for your online accounts. 

Screenshot: 1password

1Password (Jasco’s pick!)

At Jasco, we recommend 1Password as the best way to save passwords. It can sync your credentials across multiple devices and platforms — including mobile, browsers and applications — ensuring secure logins no matter where you are. 

1Password also offers the best way to manage passwords through its “vaults” function. Vaults can be assigned to specific teams to segment password sharing — for example, bank information can be shared solely with Finance, software passwords can be shared with IT, and your MSP and other third-parties can be given access purely to the accounts they need, which reduces your exposure. 

As well as facilitating secure password sharing and administration, 1Password protects users against breaches such as from phishing attempts, scans the dark web for stolen credentials, and can be linked to authenticator apps to enable MFA for the most secure way to store passwords. While there is no free version, most business users typically require the managerial controls of paid options on every tool.