Should use LastPass for password management? In this article, I will share with you about my own experience when using the LastPass service.
Need to manage password/account information
Table of Contents
Along with the development of information technology, internet services appear more and more. Before if you used only one Yahoo account for everything, now you have a lot more. You can have Facebook, Twitter, Zalo accounts, 3-5 different bank accounts, etc.
When the number of your accounts is increasing, you yourself can’t remember them all in your head. If you write it down in a notebook or keep a note on your phone, it will be very easy to steal information.
At this point, you need tools/services to help you manage your confidential information.
How do account management tools/services work?
- All your accounts and passwords are stored in an encrypted database.
- Passwords for accounts can be stored as random strings that you don’t have to remember.
- You need to set a Master Password for the account management tool/service. And this is also the only password you need to remember.
- Each time you want to use an account (e.g. email):
- Use Master Password to login to the account management tool/service.
- Copy the email account that was saved in it and use it.
What is the LastPass service?
LastPass is a free online password manager service. Allows you to manage all your accounts on a single platform.
LastPass offers the ability to let you access your passwords through:
- Web-based, you just need to log in to the LastPass website and use the service.
- Via extension on Chrome, Firefox, Opera, MS Edge browsers.
- Via client software on computers using Windows, Linux, and MacOS operating systems.
- Via Android and iOS phone apps.
You can see the advantage of LastPass is that you can manage all your accounts and passwords in a single place. And at the same time can access password information from any device, platform.
This is different from password management software such as KeePass, KeePassX. These software save your information as an encrypted file on your personal device (computer or phone).
With KeepassX, you can’t access it from anywhere because the information file is only on one machine. The temporary solution for this is that you will sync this data file via the cloud like Google Drive for example. And you can access it on another computer by syncing this file down.
Personal experience using LastPass
Here, I will not discuss security issues or previous reports of LastPass being hacked. You can easily find that on the internet.
And one more thing, no system is 100% secure, so if LastPass has been hacked, it is understandable.
Personally, have been using the LastPass service for about a month and a half. Before that, I used KeePassX to save my password information.
Pros and Cons of LastPass
Personal advantages:
- Easily access data from different computers. Due to my particularity, I work on many computers.
- Help finding information. I have hundreds of information and I can find its name quickly. For KeePassX, I have to manually scroll up and down and find.
Defect:
- For safety reasons, I don’t save anything in the browser. And so, every time you log into LastPass through the web, the service will ask you to verify your identity via email. So this has an obvious risk, if you can no longer access your email and LastPass forces you to verify your identity via email before being allowed to log in. Yes, you’re done with the movie. You cannot access your password anymore.
- LastPass support is almost useless in emergencies. For example, in case you forget the Master Password used to login to the LastPass service, you ask support to help you. But unfortunately, according to the official information on the website, LastPass also cannot help you access without Master Pass.
LastPass down and scary experience
The last time I used LastPass was when I decided to transfer all my accounts and passwords back to KeePassX.
About 12/08/2021, I have to use the password stored in LastPass. I performed the service login as usual and boom… a white screen popped up and nothing else. And I tried again and again, still the same result.
I waited from afternoon and evening and the result is still the same. Right now I’m really in trouble and quite scared. Afraid of what if LastPass has a serious problem and all my passwords are lost? That was the only question on my mind at the time.
Fortunately, the next morning the service was back to normal and everything was fine. However, LastPass has no explanation for their service being down for a relatively long time. That makes me feel insecure when using their services.
Can’t give my life to someone who can’t guarantee me right?
Should I use LastPass?
Well, the question is whether to use LastPass? The answer is up to you and my advice is not to use it.
I do not deny that LastPass is a great service, also quite reputable in the world. There are also many individuals/organizations using their services to manage passwords. You can completely use their service for free.
But with my own experience, I decided not to use LastPass anymore. After all, it’s better for me to decide for myself that it’s better to keep my data safe than to let someone else hold it but I’m not sure it’s safe.
Anyway, using KeePassX and Google Drive is not so bad. You can save the password file to many different places besides Google Drive.
Conclusion
The post is very long so I hope you don’t get bored with it. These are also my personal experiences and I would like to share them with you. Those of you who are intending or are using the LastPass service. Hope your data is safe.
(This is an article from my old blog that has been inactive for a long time, I don’t want to throw it away so I will keep it and hope it helps someone).
