Protecting your identity is becoming increasingly critical, especially in light of this year’s Equifax breach. The FTC recommends taking several steps to protect your identity, including regular credit checks, credit monitoring software, and improving your password strength.
One tip they have given and continue to stand behind is using a password management software to help remember and organize all the passwords you keep for different programs and websites.
In a nutshell, according to Consumer Reports, password managers “generate, retrieve, and keep track of super-long, crazy-random passwords across countless accounts for you, while also protecting all your vital online information – not only passwords, but PINs, credit card numbers and three-digit CVV codes, answers to security questions, and more – with encryption so strong that it might take a hacker between decades and forever to crack. And to remember that security, you’ll only need to remember a single password, the one you use to unlock your so-called vault.”
There are several options on the market to choose from, but, of course, there are many hackers trying to get the everyday consumer to choose their password management “software” and unknowingly hand over the keys to their identity. Consumer Reports names 1Password, Dashlane, KeePass, and LastPass as the four most popular options available today.
As an added bonus, password management software provides your beneficiaries with much-needed information should something happen to you unexpectedly, so long as they have your “vault” password.
I encourage you to consider this software, and continue to take steps to protect your identity!