Android

I can’t imagine life without one. So many bad password habits can be eliminated by using a password manager to generate a strong, unique password for every site you use, and devoting your limited password-remembering powers to one decent master password. (Or better yet, secure your password manager further using other forms of authentication.)

It’s not just for helping you (and your less technically inclined friends and family) remember and use strong, unique passwords, though. Since a password manager only recognizes the real web address that any given password was designated to, it won’t be fooled by a scam website using a similar-looking name to a legitimate one. While this doesn’t eliminate the risk of falling for a scam, every little bit helps, no matter how skilled you are at cybersecurity.

I use Bitwarden, which I’ve been using ever since Lastpass started limiting you to using a single device class (mobile or desktop) for free accounts. It integrates with both Firefox and Chromium-based browsers and with the password manager features in smartphones. Their free account is nice, but I went with the paid option so that I could keep and use 2FA passcodes within Bitwarden itself. There have been several debates between doing it like this versus using a separate authenticator app, but I feel like it’s both very secure and really, really convenient. It encourages me to use increased security on every website that supports it.