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We are not going to delve into the importance of appropriate password management for the umpteenth time here, since it’s all obvious and unquestionable these days. Just take it for granted. What we are going to elaborate on though is an application delivering excellent opportunities to authenticate oneself online conveniently without a slightest chance of getting owned.
LastPass Premium charges you as little as $1 per month while performing the complete scope of tasks that many similar utilities ask a significantly larger payment for: it creates strong passwords, stores and efficiently manages them, allows making secure notes, enables extensive password importing options (including access details for your Wi-Fi connections), and automatically fills out online forms for remarkably easy and hassle-free e-shopping, etc. One of this app’s hallmarks is the fact it comes as a browser add-on. Another peculiarity is that LastPass Premium backs up your credentials in a highly secure cloud environment, i.e. outside of your machine. Compared to its free counterpart, LastPass Premium provides additional mobility features for on-the-go data access, multifactor authentication via USB thumb drive or YubiKey, and priority support opportunities.
We hate to jump the gun but can’t help pointing out from the get-go that we really like the ease of use and all-round functionality of this solution. This review will explicate the ins and outs of LastPass Premium, including its usability details, features, efficiency, downfalls and benefits.
While involving quite a few screens and checkboxes to tick or untick, the procedure of LastPass Premium setup ultimately results in the installation of a completely ready-to-use app. At this stage, you can opt into getting the corresponding plug-ins for all the browsers installed on your computer, create a LastPass account in case you don’t have one, import passwords and other data, as well as specify whether or not you would like to stay logged into the program after you close your browser. Should you accidentally forget to add the plug-in for one or several of your browsers during the setup, there’s no need to worry because this can be easily done afterwards by looking up and enabling the LastPass extension via the corresponding menu item in the web browser concerned.
You get to understand the essence of the program’s slogan “The Last Password You’ll Have to Remember” the moment it starts running on your PC: it requests that you specify the master password which is to become the key for all the further transactions with your login details. The password strength meter helps you pick a sufficiently reliable combination.
Again, LastPass does not really have a static user interface as such, at least not in the regular sense – it is manifested in the form of a multifunctional browser plug-in accessible from a button residing in the browser’s toolbar panel. Clicking the button opens a drop-down list of the app’s settings and features: the Logoff option, Identities, My LastPass Vault, Recently Used, Sites, Secure Notes, Fill Forms, Preferences, Help, Tools, and Save All Entered Data. Each one of these menu items encompasses a range of additional options which, in their turn, open up as standalone screens.
Using LastPass Premium for password maintenance proper turned out a pretty intuitive activity to carry out. Whenever you try to access a secure website, the program displays an unobtrusive request on whether or not it should remember this password, providing a total of three options: Save Site, Never For This Page / Domain, and Not Now. If you select Save Site, it will appear in your LastPass Vault where you can edit the info, share the item, or delete it. During further logins to all the pages you added this way, it’s only the master password that will be required, or no action on your end at all – in case you switched off the obligatory master password input. Configuring the form filling functionality is just as easy: you open the Vault, hit the Form Fill Profiles tab, and enter the requested personal data. You can as well generate a strong password at any time by picking the right option under Tools. Adding a secure note is a two-click transaction that takes literally seconds. Importing and exporting your passwords shouldn’t cause any difficulties either: just go to Tools, choose Import From or Export To, pick the needed item on the list of supported password managers, and proceed with the specific task. As we already mentioned, a really handy thing here is the ability to import Wi-Fi connection passwords which are usually a pain to keep in mind.
Generally, Last Pass Premium is a pleasure to use. It effectively takes over the mundane job of password typing and gives you peace of mind when it comes to safety of your sensitive credentials.
LastPass Premium boasts a competitive feature set outperforming some costlier utilities in the competition. Aside from utilizing best practices of creating, storing and managing passwords and sensitive data, it adopts key sniffing countermeasures, flexible account access restrictions, protection against phishing, automated form filling, multifactor authentication, and versatile features for your mobile device. Let’s go over all those individually.
When stored by LastPass Premium, your personal data is strongly encrypted with military-grade algorithm. What this means is nobody gets access to it no matter how sophisticated and tricky their methods are. Some users might have concerns about their credentials residing in the cloud, but the AES-256 encryption utilized to keep it inaccessible to anyone, including the bad guys, does the trick. LastPass Vault access via multifactor authentication with USB thumb drive or YubiKey adds yet more security to the whole process.
We spotted no flaws or problems whatsoever in the way LastPass operates. It generates passwords, saves your credentials, adds secure notes, fills out online forms, logs you in, and generally processes any input data in no time. This is the rare case where there is barely anything else to add – LastPass Premium manages your passwords and defends your privacy pretty much immaculately.
Support for LastPass Premium users includes quite a few alternatives. Basically, self-help options should address nearly all issues you may possibly encounter. The Help Center contains searchable FAQs by product and by feature. User Manual is accessible directly from the drop-down menu of the LastPass browser plug-in, and it turns out easy to navigate. In addition, you can watch the very informative screencasts, browse the LastPass Forums, or submit a ticket containing the description of your problem or inquiry. Phone support and faster ticket response times are the privileges only Premium users can benefit from. We found no live chat option though, which is probably the only minor shortcoming.
LastPass Premium stores your sensitive credentials efficiently enough to be trusted. Beyond that, it diligently undertakes to do the job most people find screamingly annoying – thinking of new passwords, entering login details, filling out online forms, and the like. Owing to the availability of mobile features, an additional privilege is the ability to access and manage these data on the go. And lastly, for more than just regular everyday privacy maintenance, you are free to make use of the multifactor authentication which completely rules out the probability of identity theft.
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