It's 2019 and we have a lot of great gadgets: engines like flying taxis still work. But we still have to deal with passwords, a ban on our online existence. Google recently released the results of a security survey, stating that 52 percent of adults surveyed use the same password for more than one account. This is an unforgivable sin, given how painful it is to remember all the letters and numbers. Some - a total of 13 percent - but even used the same password on each account. This is very bad.

Respondents to the same survey said that a password manager had helped them with this problem. These results are a good reminder that a platform that can help you manage your password - popular options include 1Password and LastPass - is a robust, if not the perfect solution to your personal security problem. online.

Password managers usually do two things:

they automatically fill in your existing passwords for you, and even better, they can generate and store long, complicated, random code for you. Browsers like Chrome and Safari can already do this (for example, Apple stores passwords on your iCloud Keychain). These services can be a good choice if you only use one system, such as iPhone, plus Mac and Safari.

But a third-party password manager will work on many platforms, from apps to multiple browsers, whether it's Google or Apple.

The real security bonus comes from long and complicated passwords that a password manager can create and store for you, which is absolutely better than any system you've cooked. "It is very difficult for most people to maintain good cleanliness when it comes to passwords because there are so many different accounts that they have to manage," said Shuman, CTO. cyber security Shape Security.

A compelling reason to consider using such a service is the fact that millions of emails and passwords are already available to criminals who may try to use it. For example, the list known as "Collection # 1" is reported with more than 700 million email addresses and about 21 million passwords. Such data is not the result of a security breach, but of a large amount, and criminals may try to use this resource to log in to accounts they do not need, such as a bank website. This is a tactic called credential stuffing, and according to Shape Security [PDF], an average of 80 to 90 percent of the traffic the vendor's website received in 2017 came from attacks.

But if every password you use is different and complex, a password issued by an intruder on other sites may be useless. A physical device, such as Google Titan Security Key, can help increase the security of the two-factor login process.

Password managers are not perfect and have pitfalls for the user experience - for example, using a system like 1Password requires that you first assign them your current password. Then you need to change this password to make it new for you.