If Your Passwords Are Your Pet’s Name, You Need to Read This

I recently signed up for Eero Secure+ because lots of people have asked if Eero’s subscription service is worth the price, and I want to have a good answer for this.

One of the main perks of Eero Secure+ is that it includes 1Password‘s password manager.

And this got me thinking…

I assumed most people utilize a password manager, but when I asked friends and family, most still use passwords like “petname123” for all of their accounts.

Simple passwords are a terrible idea, especially for important accounts where your financial livelihood is on the line. It’d take an algorithm less than ten minutes to crack your “petname123” password if someone had a reason to.

Why not just create unique passwords that are hard to crack? They’re hard to remember.

Ever see the message, “Your password must have at least 1 capital letter, 1 symbol, 1 number, and 13 vowels” while creating a password?

It can be painful to create something within these parameters while keeping it memorable. And you can’t just keep reusing this memorable password because it’d make things easier for a bad actor.

This is why password managers are hugely important. Maybe I’m more paranoid than most, but why put things at risk if there are easy solutions?

With a password manager, each time a website or app asks you to create a password, the manager automatically generates a random, unique password with letters, numbers, and symbols, then saves it. Then, the next time you visit the site, it’s automatically entered.

Safari has an amazing password manager built right in with iCloud Keychain. iCloud Keychain works throughout the Apple ecosystem with iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple TV. All you need is your Apple ID login, then your passwords automatically come with you, as long as you authenticate with Touch ID or Face ID.

If you’re an Apple-only user, you can stop reading here, and just take advantage of Safari’s built-in manager. Start by switching out old generic passwords for auto-generated ones.

But there’s an issue with iCloud Keychain…

It only works with Apple products and only works with the Safari browser. Recently, I’ve been using crypto protocols more frequently that require browser extensions found exclusively on Chrome and Brave. The more time I spend in the Brave browser, the more frustrated I am that my passwords don’t come with me from Safari.

While Chrome and Brave browsers have generic password managers, they’re not secured by anything, and passwords aren’t auto-generated for you.

This is where 1Password fits in.

1Password does everything that Safari’s manager does, but it’s cross-platform (Mac, PC, Andriod, and iPhone) and works with five different browsers (Safari, Chrome, Brave, Opera, and Firefox). I haven’t tested 1Password long enough to give a definitive review, but it’s been great so far.

The bottom line is that if you have important information about yourself on the internet, you need to look into a password manager, but it probably doesn’t matter which service you use.