Thursday, January 05, 2023

I'm Auditioning Password Managers ...

... because, as explained on today's episode of Sophos's naked security podcast, LastPass has well and truly shit the bed, Amber Heard style.

I can't say for sure that my data was compromised in the LastPass breach. But I've definitely had technical problems with it.

Not long ago, I started having problems with my "master password." It wouldn't work. Then it wouldn't work some more. Then it finally worked. So I changed it. And then it stopped working again. Except when it worked. And I'm not talking about fat fingers typing errors -- I had it written down and was very careful entering it.

Today, I went through their "reset account" process, which (at least according to them) erased all my existing data and had me create a new master password. I haven't tried the new master password yet, because I'm no longer interested in using their service. As for my data, if it was compromised in the breach, it's still compromised.

For the last couple of days, I've been testing Dashlane (not an affiliate link). Not bad, but the "free" version limits you to 50 passwords. I may end up paying for a password manager, and if I do, $2.75 per month isn't a terrible price for unlimited passwords on multiple devices.

Now I'm trying NordPass (not an affiliate link). So far so good -- my only complaint is that I had to actually install an app on a device (as opposed to just e.g. a browser extension) to get started. Their free version includes unlimited passwords, and their premium version starts at $1.49 per month for the first two years (or $2.79 for a "family" version with up to six user accounts), with up to six devices simultaneously logged in.

If NordPass works out well, I'll probably stop looking. If not, I'll try others, and/or consider paying for Dashlane.

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