Password management can be tricky and tiresome, if you are not careful and don’t use the right tools. With time, the number of websites, email accounts and bank accounts will only increase which means, you have to remember one more password.

It goes without saying that you should not use the same password for each and every website and risk all your online properties, in case your only password is hacked or cracked. I prefer using long alphanumeric passwords which are impossible to guess or remember and hence this mechanism demands a full blown password manager

There are different tools for password management, regardless of whatever operating system you are using. I was using Keepass on windows for quite some time (Keepass is a portable password manager), then quit Keepass and stored passwords in Google Chrome itself. Then I realized the risk of storing passwords in the browser and made another shift to LastPass – the browser based password manager which can be locked in one keyboard shortcut.

I think I would stick to Lastpass as it is the easiest way to have your username and passwords across all your devices – Windows, Mac, Android, iOS or whatever device or browser you are using. Google Chrome works fine but here is a problem. If you leave your computer unlocked or if someone manages a chance to peek into your system, it will take him a minute to see all the saved passwords in Google Chrome. Storing passwords in your browser is not secured. For example, if your computer is stolen the new user may have access to all your online accounts in a minute.

Sharing Passwords With Others

Another problem with passwords is that sometime you may want to share it with another user. For example, you may have a savings account in a bank or you may have a joint Facebook account and you may want to share the long alphanumeric password with your spouse, parents, or children.

So instead of emailing them the password, you can use LastPass to share passwords with anyone without having to manually tell them or write them the password. In its recent update, LastPass have rrevamped their interface for browser extensions and have added the ability to share passwords with other LastPass users. Now your LastPass vault can be integrated with your mobile browser which allows one click access to all your username and passwords in your Android phone or iPhone.

Lastpass users with a Premium account can now setup a shared family folder and invite upto 5 members to that folder so that joint access can be granted for sharing passwords. You can simply drag and drop login credentials of an account into your shared LastPass folder and the people who have been added to the Shared folder will have access to the username and password which you have shared.

This is extremely useful if you frequently need to share confidential information e.g username, passwords, banking transaction numbers and secret information to your friends and family members. You can also set the mode to “Read only” so this ensures that the shared password and username can only be read and not modified by the people with whom you have shared a particular username/password credential.

I highly recommend giving LastPass a try, if you are looking for a cross platform password manager with the least amount of friction.