Using a Password Manager for Your Travels

Stolen identities are becoming more commonplace in the 21^st century. What’s usually a headache back home can completely ruin a vacation while abroad, so using a password manager can be a good idea to protect yourself.

It can also be more convenient. Nowadays, people have too many online accounts to create a strong, unique password for each one. The solution is to remember one master password, but that means cracking one account is cracking all of them. Many sites use Google accounts to login, which helps, but only if you have a strong master key to begin with.

Thankfully, there are several password managers available to help organize your keys in one convenient spot. More important, they usually come with a password generator, allowing you to create strong, random passwords for each account. Simply memorize a long master key to access the manager and copy your generated passwords into the browser. Now, all your social media profiles are compartmentalized, meaning if one account is hacked, the intruder will probably not be able to access another account easily (as long as they don’t crack your password manager).

Password managers like LastPass, 1password and KeePass, usually store information in an encrypted database file that lives locally on your computer. If you need to be able to access your accounts from another computer, the database can be saved to a cloud, though keep in mind this will require another strong master password to remember. Databases can also be stored on a USB for offline access.