Best Password Manager software review 2012

What is password management software and why is it useful?

Convenience aspect

Password management software makes it as simple as ABC to handle your personal online credentials. Not only can it create strong and hard-to-guess passwords for you, it also facilitates the way you log into your accounts, thus sparing you of the vertigo almost every computer user faces these days. All you need to keep in mind is the ‘master password’ – the rest of the authentication routine is then done by the utility automatically. Moreover, using the ‘master password’ you can work with your accounts on different PCs without leaving any traces, thus eliminating the probability of subsequent privacy violation.

So you will no longer need to write down or remember your passwords as the software stores them all in a safe place and subsequently logs you in each time you want to access an account.

Another handy feature of most password managers is ‘auto-fill’ which makes it real easy to apply for new web services. The tool will do the cumbersome personal details entering job for you using the regular information that you pre-defined (your name, birth data, location, phone numbers etc.).

It’s not only passwords that this software helps you manage though. You can also rely on it for storing other data like PINs, locker combinations, software licenses etc.

Additionally, the backup function enables restoring your private information if some error or software failure happens to occur.

Cybersecurity aspect

Are you an active web-surfer? Do you have multiple accounts with different online services? If so, you are a potential target for hacktivists who are constantly rolling out their sophisticated phishing schemes and implementing other fraudulent endeavors to get hold of users’ private data. Password managers can secure your online identity from being compromised by those villains.

Figuratively speaking, password management software is primarily meant to help you handle and defend the ‘alpha and omega’ of your cyber existence, i.e. privacy. To put it more down-to-earth, with this sort of software at your disposal, all your authentication data gets encrypted and stored in reliably protected locations inside your computer. Also, due to the automated login principle which does not actually involve the keyboard, you can feel confident no keyloggers will ever record what you type while entering your account information such as user logins and passwords.

 

Password Management software review: evaluation criteria

Password managers should be convenient and easy to use even for those who are not too computer savvy. This simplicity is to be combined with sufficient security though, powering the ultimate privacy protection. Below is a brief list of the basic criterias password management software should meet.

  • Features: The functional value of password managers is determined by the scope of specific options they offer. Of course the feature of prime importance is generating and managing login data. The ability to store other types of personal information such as credit card details, SSNs etc. is an additional advantage to look for. It’s also a great feature to be able to save the database to an external device so that the user can be protected while working on a different computer.
  • Security: The idea that must be ‘hard-coded’ into the very essence of password managers is to help you stay on the safe side. Reliable data encryption, as well as phishing and keylogger defense are therefore implied as the basics to consider when picking the right utility.
  • Ease of Use: Convenience and ease of use are some of the undoubted virtues that definitely tilt the scales in favor of a specific password manager. You want a program that makes complicated things simple, be it generating strong passwords, creating new accounts, backing up your data or filling out online forms.
  • Support: It’s a must for password management software vendors to provide appropriate assistance for its clients and supply the necessary software documentation online. Customer support should be easy to reach via different channels (email, online chat, phone), friendly and fast to respond.

 

RoboForm Pro review

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Kaspersky Password Manager 2012 review

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