Never Use a Password Again
OK, I exaggerated. You’ll need one password. Just one. For everything. Forever.
That’s almost as good as none, right?
Managing one password is waaaaay better than managing a dozen or so passwords like I used to. Like most of you, I also used to re-use passwords on scores of different websites. All that is now just a bad memory.
If you’re a small business owner, this won’t just make your accounts more secure. It will also save you boatloads of time.
Read on to learn how…
I couldn’t believe the email I was staring at from Google:
Hi Andrew,
Someone recently tried to use an application to sign in to your Google Account… If you do not recognize this sign-in attempt, someone else might be trying to access your account. You should sign in to your account and reset your password immediately.
Yikes!
After doing a little digging, I found that someone in the U.K. had tried to log into my Google account. They had used both my username and password. Google blocked it because I’d never before logged in from the U.K.
Oh crap!
I immediately changed my Google password and also set up their 2-step verification, which is quite secure and easier to use than I’d expected. I highly recommend it.
But I still had a major problem.
I used that email/password combination on dozens of other websites for my business!
So now what?
I couldn’t imagine going through and manually updating all those passwords to some new password, only to expose myself to such a hacker again in the future.
And I couldn’t imagine trying to create a unique password for each account so that any such successful hacking would be limited in its potential damage.
There had to be a better option.
Luckily, after some more research, I found it: www.LastPass.com.
What is LastPass?
It’s a password manager that solves all your password problems.
I was quite skeptical at first. But after reading the FAQs and trying it out, I’ve become a true-believer. I am amazed by this tool.
Main features:
- You access your LastPass account with a single password. (This is the only one you’ll ever again need to remember. Ever.)
- LastPass stores all your online passwords securely.
- LastPass will generate and apply strong, unique passwords for each of your website accounts.
- When you reach a website login page, you can login with a single click!
I had some big concerns about my passwords:
Paranoia: The LastPass software installs on your computer and runs on your browsers. What if I’m away from my laptop or, heaven forbid, lose it?
Relief: No problem. You can always log into your account online from any computer and retrieve any of your passwords.
Paranoia: What if someone hacks LastPass and deletes all the accounts?
Relief: Highly unlikely, but for additional piece of mind you can (and I do) easily export all of your LastPass data to a spreadsheet to save on your PC. Just make sure to password-protect the spreadsheet!
Paranoia: Is using LastPass going to be more hassle than it’s worth? It was a pain managing all my passwords in spreadsheets, but that was a “devil that I knew”.
Relief: LastPass is soooo convenient. Whenever you log into a website LastPass will ask if you want it to remember the login info. Two clicks and you’re done. Want to generate a unique, more secure password? Two more clicks.
I can’t tell you how great LastPass has been for me.
Piece of mind.
Now I no longer fear Armageddon if one of my accounts getting compromised. All my other accounts will still be secure.
Time savings.
I probably used to spend 10-15 minutes a day, every day, just logging into website accounts. I use a lot of accounts for both business and personal reasons every day. And I’d often need 2-3 login attempts to get any given account right, between either forgetting which password to use or mis-typing it.
Now, I log in *once* to LastPass. Then every time I need to log into another website, LastPass auto-fills the info, and I just click “Log In”. I LOVE IT.
Free!
By the way, did I mention you get all this for free? There are some paid options (such as using LastPass on your mobile device), but the primary functionality is completely free.
And there’s more…
There are other great features, too. For example, I can securely share some account info with my wife (such as bank logins), and she can take advantage of the same unique, strong passwords without ever needing to remember them. All she needs to do is signup for her own free LastPass account. (It’s up to you whether you want to share your Gmail and Facebook logins with your spouse. I’m not gonna go there.)
LastPass will also automatically fill in web forms with your name, contact info, credit card info, etc. For some reason I never trusted browsers to auto-fill my credit card info, but I trust LastPass. And you can use any browser. Again, this is another huge time saver.
IMPORTANT:
Keep in mind that it’s absolutely critical that you always remember your LastPass password! Your data is fully encrypted on LastPass servers, and without that password no one can access the login info you’ve stored for all your accounts. This is part of what makes their system so secure, so don’t knock it. Just remember your one secure password! And never tell another soul.
I hope some of you can benefit from this amazing service as much as I have. May you never worry about online security again!
All the best,
Andrew
P.S. – I am not in any way affiliated with LastPass.com. I just think they provide an essential and highly effective service that I think every small business owner should know about! There are other similar service providers you can check out. After doing my homework I went with LastPass and am one happy customer!
P.P.S. – What does this have to do with Internet Marketing for Small Business Owners? Well, not much. But small business owners should certainly be taking advantage of the security and time-savings of a service like LastPass.
Are there advantages to using LastPass vs Firefox or Chrome “Remember Password” feature? I have been using Firefox to remember all my passwords, and so far it has been convenient.
The main advantages to me are that 1) You can use LastPass with any browser and any computer, so you’ll never be stuck if you lack access to yours for any reason, 2) LastPass lets me share passwords with others (for example, I have a shared folder with my wife, that can also be accessed by her from any computer), and 3) I “feel” that LastPass is more secure since this is the core of their business, but I don’t have any data as to whether that’s actually true.