LastPass Secure Password Vault

[Note: See security update notice below.] LastPass® software provides a secure password manager and vault.  It allows you to create and store a strong unique password for each website that you visit.  It will tell you if your password is weak or strong.

LastPass Security Challenge

The LastPass Security Challenge will give you a report of the strength of each of your passwords, identify duplicates and give you a total score.  You can make your passwords longer and stronger, eliminate duplicates and run the Security Challenge again to see how much your score improves.

It also includes a vulnerability check for the Heartbleed OpenSSL bug and will advise if you need to update your passwords on affected websites.

Password Folders

To keep organized, you can group your passwords into folders such as banking, credit cards, shopping, news, travel, entertainment, etc.

Browser Compatibility

LastPass is compatible with your favorite web browser: Chrome®, Brave®, Firefox®, Opera®, Edge® and Safari®.  If you are using another password manager, you can import your stored passwords into LastPass.  I was using KeePass and had no problem importing the passwords.

Master Password

It uses Trust No One (TNO) security.  This means that your passwords are transferred and stored in an encrypted format, and LastPass does not have the master password or encryption key.  Only you keep the master password.  Make it very strong and store it in a secure place, such as a fire-proof safe.

Multi-factor Authentication

For extra protection, use multi-factor authentication.  You can require a master password and a code number generated by an authenticator app on your smartphone to gain access to your password vault.  Do not use SMS text messaging for two-factor authentication.  It is not secure.

Many users have weak passwords and use the same password on multiple websites.  This is bad security practice.   According to the LastPass website, 73% of people use the same password for multiple sites, the average password length is only 6 characters, and it only takes 3 minutes to crack the average password.

Use Strong Passwords

With LastPass, you can generate and store long, strong, unique passwords for each website to greatly improve your website security.  Avoid using personal information such as your name, family members, pets, birthdates, phone numbers, location, zip code, and all words found in the dictionary.  Use random strings containing upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.

You won’t have to remember the passwords, LastPass will store them for you.  When you go to a website that requires login information, it will fill in your user name and password.

The basic version of LastPass is free.  A premium version is available with more features.

Security Update: 2023-02-03 Since this post was originally written in 2014, LastPass has suffered multiple security breaches and has lost much public trust.  We no longer use or recommend LastPass.

In 2021, we switched from LastPass to the free version of Bitwarden® for an online password manager and also use free KeePassXC as an offline password manager for redundancy. We use a long strong random master password with 128 bits of entropy and two-factor login with the Aegis authenticator app.

Always keep a secure backup copy of your master password and authenticator app for redundancy.  Also, consider buying a YubiKey for the strongest 2FA security.

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