Each week in this series we talk about another small thing you can work on to make yourself ever more skilled, and help your library to be better able to serve your community. This week’s tip can do both!

Have you heard of password managers? If you read articles or listen to podcasts about web security, you have doubtless seen reference to them – and strident urging to get one immediately.

If you have not already tried the podcast Reply All, I highly recommend it in general. Very fun, they solve tech issues in a long story form, and it’s informative. Specifically, I recommend listening to Episode #91: The Russian Passenger. You can click on that link, go to their episode site, and listen right there. (There is also a follow up: Episode #111 The Return of the Russian Passenger.)

You might also want to listen to Episode #130: the Snapchat Thief.  Or #97 What Kind of Idiot Gets Phished? And really, there are tons of others.

But the point is that a password manager is just a wonderful tool.

Possibly you are like me, and feel senility creeping up on you when YET AGAIN you are totally unable to remember a password. I have been locked out of so many website for trying to guess too many times, it’s just pathetic.

And do you use the same password everywhere?

I came up with a couple of good ones, and then proceeded to use them. Over and over again. For a few years.

Needless to say, they are both floating around the dark web after being hacked (probably multiple times) on big websites. (Hey, thanks for that, Adobe!!)

And we share passwords at work, for accounts we need to share – so I can’t just change it every week when I’ve forgotten one! (Okay, I’ve actually done this; but for a variety of reasons this is really bad practice.)

I had been hearing about password managers for a while, and it all sounded so complicated. I’m a person who can let a problem drag on until it’s REALLY a problem, if I’m not feeling motivated.

Then our website went out.

Still not sure what happened – though I believe it was user error. (*cough* me, making adjustments) But it propelled password managers right up the to-do list!

And I have to tell you: This Is GLORIOUS!!!

I now have a lovely password manager I bought that remembers ALL my passwords! It hosed up everything I had asked Firefox to remember, so it literally knows more than I do. It also tells me how many are duplicates, how many have been exposed in hacking attacks – and how many times. Yeah, that’s a little depressing.

But it’s SO EASY! When I go to a new site, I hit “Generate a new password” and it sets some random selection of numbers, letters, and symbols – as many as I want. (I think it’s defaulting to 25?) Then it sets that up on the website, and it remembers in its own files.

Done.

When I need it, the password manager just signs me into the site again – I never see it and life is good.

And I’m slowly going through the hundreds of passwords I have from life before the password manager – changing and updating every single one. (It’s really shocking how many passwords you have out there! And, how infrequently you can just delete your information from sites you used one time.)

 

There are lots of options out there. I’m using (and loving) Password Boss. Angie has a different one. And the Reply All people recommend one in their podcast. I’m guessing you can’t go far wrong with any of them.

 

Save your online life – and that of your library!! –  from being hacked. Get a password manager today!