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New Year, Better Security with LastPass: 3 Steps to Take Today

Amber SteelJanuary 08, 2013
With 2013 here and already moving forward, it's a great time to review where your online security stands with LastPass! To get you started, here are three tasks you can accomplish in less than 15 minutes:

1. Run the LastPass Security Challenge

This one may be old news if you've been a long-time LastPass user, but for those who are new to the service or haven't heard of it, the LastPass Security Challenge provides you with an evaluation of your stored passwords. Located in the Tools menu in your LastPass icon, you can run the security check at any time to see your weak and duplicate passwords. With our newest feature, LastPass Sentry, you can also perform a check of all of your stored data to see if you have any accounts that may have been affected by a breach of another site or service. If so, now's a good time to update those passwords, and update the passwords for any sites that were using the same password.

2. Update the password for your email account(s)

The last few years have seen increasing numbers of database breaches, with unprecedented amounts of consumer data being leaked online, including email username and password combinations. For most people, their email account is a window to their personal, financial, and even work life, so it's critical to (1) use a unique password and (2) to use a unique, strong password, which means it can't be guessed and isn't dictionary-based. A password generator like the one built into LastPass allows you to create strong passwords for each of your online accounts. To update your email account password, login to the account itself, navigate to your account settings page, and find the "change password" option. Once on that page, LastPass should prompt you to fill the current password for your email account, and offer the "Generate" button for you to generate a new, secure password. Be sure to confirm the changes on the site, and to LastPass when prompted.

3. Check out multifactor authentication options

Multifactor authentication refers to a second piece of data that must be submitted after submitting your email and master password, before allowing access to your account. This means that even if someone compromises your master password, they can't gain login to your account without the second form of authentication. LastPass offers several options for multifactor authentication. Some are part of the basic free version of LastPass, while others are offered as a Premium feature, including Google Authenticator, YubiKey, Sesame, Grid, and a small selection of fingerprint readers.

Stay proactive throughout the year!

Although following the above steps is a great start, and using LastPass will help you mitigate potential risks, remember to follow standard security practices like running up-to-date antivirus software and always backing up your data. What are your security goals for the year? What tips would you like to see from us?