When I first delved into programming and web development, my interests centered around optimization for security and performance. However, with the growing threat of cyber attacks and so much of my life on the Internet, I took some time to go through all the platforms/websites I regularly use (banks, airlines, social media, professional organizations, online shopping, etc.) to create unique, 15 character passwords that I stored in Bitwarden – an open-source password manager.
Why Bitwarden? It’s an open-source (totally free, maintained by the community) project that’s available on all platforms. I use it on my iMac Pro, MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad Pro, and Windows desktop without a hitch! A convenient Chromium browser extension allows Bitwarden to integrate nicely with my web-based workflow. I also purchased Bitwarden’s Premium subscription ($10/year) for two-factor authentication and security reports. I think storing my passwords in a separate, browser-agnostic application is the way to go!
Why 15-character passwords? The time it would take a modern computer to perform a “brute force” attack where algorithms systematically guess passwords based on the character types used (case-sensitive letters, numbers, special characters) and the overall password length is virtually infinite. Also, a 15-character password is short enough to manually type in if I’m using a public computer to log in to one of my accounts.
Based on the considerable number of brute-force attacks I’ve had on social media over the years, the added security confers a peace of mind that is worth the setup! After completing this process, I deleted all the passwords I had stored in the Chrome browser and iCloud Keychain. 🙂
Do you use a password manager? Drop me a comment with your questions and thoughts below!
I’m using Lastpass. Been stellar so far.
Right on! 🙂