TOLEDO, OH (Toledo News Now) - It's a digital problem we all face: how to keep our online passwords organized. So how do you keep track of them?
We talked to local experts about the best way to make sure your passwords are protected.
When you use the same password for everything, you open yourself up to hacking.
And for most people, that's at least a dozen, sometimes more.
"Working in IT it's almost impossible to remember every password you create," Roger Spears, the manager of Data Systems at Northwest State Community College said.
StaySafe also says that each password must be "long, strong and unique" with a mix of upper and lowercase, numbers, and symbols.
"Don't use the same password for several websites," Spears said. "You want to mix up the types of characters you have in your password."
So how are you supposed to stay on top of all those passwords, for all those accounts?
When it comes to tracking passwords, there are several apps and programs out there that say they can organize your passwords for you.
Experts say the best programs are the ones that are secure, can be flexible between multiple devices, and audit your passwords to make sure your passwords are different across all the programs you use.
The tech website Life Hacker took this security question to the people, asking their users which password programs they liked the best and why.
And the most popular program in their survey, earned top marks with our tech experts as well.
"I've been using one called
," Tami Norris, a computer guru from Northwest State Community College, told us. "It's an online storage and so there's actually apps you can use on your droid or i devices as well as on a PC."
Last Pass keeps your passwords in an encrypted vault online, and allows you to sync all that information with all your other devices, or just keep it on one device.
Last Pass also allows for password audits, so you can make sure your passwords are strong.
It can change passwords for you if a service you use has been hacked or compromised.
"And with it being a cloud based solution, you log into it, so you have that level of protection and then you are able to get into that same set of remembered sites and passwords and what have you," Norris explained.
"Last Pass seems to be the most popular and one of the most well recommended applications right now," Spears added. "That is one that a lot of people I know in the industry use and they actually like."
Two other popular programs in the survey:
And KeePass, which offers many of the same features, but is free, secure, and open source.
