Page updated August 16, 2024
It always seems to happen at the most inconvenient time. You need to pay that bill right now, but you can't get hold of your partner to give you the password.
You need to log in to your laptop to work, but your friend needs to dig out their WiFi password first.
You want to watch that excellent new documentary, but you can't remember the password to the family's video streaming account.
At home, while traveling, and in the office, we often find ourselves asking someone, "Hey, what's the password again?" Unfortunately, when so many of our daily tasks and work are online, password sharing is just a fact of life. But it can be an inconvenience and is often not done securely.
So how can you share passwords with friends, family, or coworkers safely and conveniently? A password manager.
How to use a secure password sharing tool
A password manager like LastPass makes it easier to manage your passwords. It’s also a secure password sharing tool that facilitates sharing passwords with others. When you share passwords through a password manager, each person has a "copy" of the password.
When you use LastPass to share passwords, each person logs in to their password vault, where they can see their private passwords and any shared passwords. Shared passwords sync automatically, so if one person updates the account record in their vault, the other person receives the update in their vault, too.
At no point does the shared party gain access to your account. Using a secure password sharing tool as a baseline security measure can significantly reduce the chances of unauthorized access to your accounts and stored passwords in the event of a data breach. If something like this were to happen, having an easy-to-use tool like LastPass will make creating new strong passwords a quick and easy experience.
So, is it safe? Yes. If you use LastPass to share a password with a team member, it's far more secure than emailing, texting, or writing a password down. That's because the password is encrypted.
When you use LastPass, only the people sharing the password have access to it because they are the only ones with their master password to log in to their password vaults and decrypt that information. Now, that doesn't mean you should share passwords with anyone. Passwords are private information that you should share as infrequently as possible. However, there are many scenarios where you may need to share passwords:
- Personal password sharing: Spouses, partners, or roommates that need to share accounts for household management and day-to-day tasks, like paying bills, making appointments, and enjoying online entertainment
- Business password sharing: Coworkers that need to share accounts for team tasks or projects. Share complex passwords and login credentials in a user friendly, safe way.
Best practices for secure password sharing
Even when sharing a password is necessary, there are still ways to make it more secure. Sharing credentials through a password manager is a good start since the information is stored and transmitted securely. Plus, you can see all shared passwords in your LastPass Sharing Center.
You can easily update a shared password, change permissions, or even revoke access entirely. When sharing passwords at work, check to see if there is an employee password sharing policy you need to adhere to (for example, prohibiting the sharing of passwords with freelancers or contractors).
A secure password sharing tool like a password manager makes it easy to keep an eye on who has access to your information and allows you to make any changes quickly if needed to protect yourself.
And always remember to make every password unique and random with a password generator. If you're no longer sharing an account login with someone, be sure to change the password to something new.
A password manager simplifies password sharing for individuals, families, and businesses. Maybe you need to keep your household on the same page. Or you're part of a team collaborating digitally on projects. Whenever you need to share access with someone, a secure password sharing tool like LastPass makes it easy to keep everyone in the loop while protecting private information.
Make sure your employees are sharing their passwords securely. Start your free trial of LastPass today.
