What is a Password Manager? Safe Storage Explained

A password manager is a digital tool that stores and manages your passwords all in one place, making for a simple log-in process when opening websites on your browser. Instead of remembering where you wrote down your passwords when you get logged out of sites, password managers allow all your log-in information to be easily accessible at the click of a button. 

Many of us make the mistake of recycling a few passwords across all our accounts, and although this can be convenient, it is not secure. If a hacker obtains one of your passwords, they can now access all your accounts that use that password. With a password manager you can use unique passwords for each of the sites you enter because you no longer have to be in charge of remembering all of them, all you need to remember is the one password that you enter to log-in to your password manager.

Another advantage of password managers is that they require multi-factor authentication (MFA) in addition to a password to access your company's stored credentials. Even if your employee's device is lost or stolen, no one will be able to get into your company's data because they will not have access to both credentials required to enter the password manager. 

Password managers also offer automatic password generation tools when creating new account log-ins. This feature is incredibly valuable because it ensures a strong password that hackers have a harder time guessing than a typical password that a person would make up.

Both of these tools can be an extra line of defense when it comes to password spraying. Password spraying is when attackers try a handful of commonly used passwords across many different accounts, hoping at least one matches, rather than repeatedly guessing against a single account. With auto-generated passwords, it decreases the chance of attackers guessing your credentials, and if they do they will have to face the MFA that only you have access to.