Most of us have multiple online accounts for business and personal use, and each of those accounts requires a username and password. With many of us having tens (if not hundreds!) of accounts, it’s no wonder we use easy-to-guess passwords or repeat one for numerous accounts. With our passwords increasing constantly, a password manager is an essential security measure we all need to keep login credentials secure from hackers.

Why do you need one?
With the rapid rise of e-commerce, online transactions, social media and cloud platforms; the proliferation of passwords has become unavoidable. Many of us use the same password on all accounts or alternate two or three passwords. This is where information security suffers. Once hackers gain access to one of your accounts, your other accounts will be targeted next.

Best practices suggest using unique, strong passwords for every website and application. That way, a password only needs to be changed if there is news of a password hack for a particular website and/or app.

How do you protect so many passwords? Paper can be lost, damaged or, worse, stolen. Spreadsheets (password protected, naturally) do a better job of centrally managing all your credentials but a better solution is a password manager. Whoever you are and whatever you do, a password manager can make your life simpler and play a vital role in protecting passwords.

More security for internet users
For those who have numerous online accounts, thinking up a unique password for each site can be a pain. This leads users to take the comfortable (yet risky) way out: using simple, predictable passwords and/or repeating the same ones time and again. Password managers save you from this risky behaviour by generating strong, unique passwords. They will remember all your passwords. You only need to remember the master password.

Save time every day
If you log in to numerous websites each day, think of all the time you spend searching for passwords and wasting time with failed logins. Password managers save time by automatically populating usernames & passwords, speeding up the login process and preventing failed logins.

Centralised management
Managing passwords, security codes, certificates and license files is a cumbersome task for organisations. A password manager stores and organises sensitive data in a secure, centralised vault; providing visibility on who has access to which passwords and a secure way to share them with others.

Building trust
If you handle customer data and resources, you are required to ensure data integrity and demonstrate that critical data (such as passwords) is being securely handled. Password managers help you centrally manage client data with robust segregation, access controls and reporting.

Information security
With passwords occupying so many aspects of our digital lives, getting a password manager is not a choice anymore. It’s a necessity. If you are wondering which solution to use, consider Zoho Vault. It comes with an easy-to-use interface, flexible enough to be accessed from a computer or mobile device. The free edition will likely be sufficient for many small businesses. Read more about Zoho Vault and Data Security.