Suffering From Password Anxiety and Fatigue? Get a Password Manager 

Are you worried that your passwords aren't secure? If so, you're not alone — according to the 2020 Psychology of Passwords study, 80% of respondents were concerned about their passwords being compromised, but nearly 50% of them hadn’t changed their passwords. This may seem counterintuitive, but there's a reason for it. Password anxiety and fatigue are real, and they're an even bigger issue now that so many people are working from home. Learn if you're grappling with password anxiety and fatigue, how to improve your password security and how a password manager can make the whole process easier for you.

What are password anxiety and fatigue?

If you've checked the news lately, you may have seen yet another story about a massive data breach. Or, you might have received an email from one of your service providers notifying you of a breach and advising you to change your password as soon as possible. You might understandably feel some password anxiety as a result. Figuring out how to address that anxiety, however, is where you can quickly get stuck. Manually keeping track of all of your passwords is way more difficult than it has to be — especially now that you're living more of your life online than ever before. That's where the password fatigue comes in. Without meaning to, you could fall into bad password habits. You might underestimate your risk, for example, by assuming you have fewer online accounts than you actually do. You might also believe that hackers aren't interested in your data. You might be concerned about forgetting your passwords, defaulting to the method that you feel will give you more control  (like writing them down), even if you know that system isn't secure.

5 tips for improving your password security

Although it's perfectly human to feel password anxiety and fatigue, there's only one way to rid yourself of them for good — by improving your password security. These five tips will help you do just that.

1. Don't reuse passwords. Using the same password for multiple accounts greatly increases your risk because if a hacker guesses or cracks that one password, they could use it to log into your other accounts. For this reason, it's best to use a unique password for each of your online accounts.

1. Update your passwords. If you haven't updated your passwords in a while, it's a good idea to take care of that now. If any of your passwords are stolen in a data breach, they could end up on the dark web. From there, hackers might try logging into one or more of your personal or work accounts. By updating your passwords, you can shut the door on them before they get in.

1. Use strong passwords. If a password is easy for you to remember, it's also easy for others to guess or crack. That's why it's important to use a strong, complex password for each of your online accounts. A strong password should have at least 16 characters including a mix of capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols.

1. Take advantage of MFA and biometrics. If any of your online accounts offer additional authentication options like multi-factor authentication (MFA) or biometrics, take advantage of them. Begin with your most frequently used accounts and move on from there, enabling these features when you find them.

1. Monitor your data. It's important to know as soon as one of your accounts has been breached. Dark web monitoring services and credit monitoring tools can alert you when your information has been compromised so you can reset the affected password and understand how you may have been impacted.

How a password manager solves password anxiety

A password manager makes it easier to secure your passwords. It generates strong passwords for each of your accounts and stores them in an encrypted vault. From that point on, you no longer have to worry about remembering your passwords — the password manager automatically fills them in for you when you need to log in to your accounts. What's more, you can easily access and update your passwords from all of your devices whenever you need to. A password manager can also help you review your existing passwords, alerting you when some of the passwords you use are not strong enough. This tool will also warn you when you're using the same password for different accounts, nudging you to set unique passwords for each of them. With these helpful reminders, you can continually raise the bar on your password security.

Say goodbye to password anxiety and fatigue

It's normal to feel password anxiety and fatigue, but password security has never been more important than it is right now. If you don't take steps to improve your password hygiene, you may be unintentionally compromising your personal and work accounts. The good news is that it's not actually that hard to get your password security in better shape. A password manager, like LastPass, can help you say goodbye to anxiety and fatigue by giving you control over your passwords. This way, you can enjoy password peace — the relaxing feeling that comes with knowing your passwords and online accounts are safe and secure.