Password security can no longer be ignored. Even by the technically semi-literate. Or the technically advanced, such as myself. Truth be told I did not practice what I have preached for years. I have always told people not to use the same password on multiple sites. I have been using the same password everywhere for years. I have gotten away with it for years because it was long, obscure, and complex. More lengthy and complex than most corporate policies dictate.
That kind of thing just does not fly any longer, period. Just about anything that is short enough and simple enough for you to remember is hackable. It is only a matter of time. With the proliferation of online activity and the ability to track people from site to site, a single password for all is a disaster waiting to happen. Yes, I had a WoW (World of Warcraft) account hacked and my secondary gmail account hacked. That was a sign for the laziness to end.
Along comes password management to the rescue. I have looked a a few options and partly because of a recommendation from Steve Gibson , I looked at LastPass. If you are a fan of SpinRite or Shields UP!!, you are already familiar with his site grc.com. LastPass may or may not be the best at what it does and just about any management system is better than using the same password everywhere, LastPass has solid functionality and works on my Android phone, my Chrome OS netbook, and my Windows 7 desktop. I created a master pass phrase that is very long and I can only remember because of the substitution cypher I keep in my head. I've used LastPass to generate and track new passwords for every site that I use and so far, except for online games, it works like a charm. A thing of beauty.
No more excuses, take charge of your digital security.
