Last Pass

[artbuc]

LOL, I am now considered the family computer expert since my former nephew-in-law is no longer around. Yesterday I spent all afternoon removing bloatware, malware, streamlining desktop, resetting passwords for a visually challenged family member. His PC was so messed up I had to boot up in safe mode to,get started. Finally got everything working great but discovered outlook.com can not remember login credentials the way his old hotmail account did. This is a significant obstacle even with his special keyboard. I did some Googling and came across an app called Last Pass which is a browser add-on which remembers credentials. Is this app safe to use? Thanks.

[camerongray]

LastPass is safe yes.  When you set it up you provide a master password, this is used to encrypt all of the saved passwords and is not held by LastPass themselves. This way you are the only person who knows this master password and are therefore the only person who can (theoretically) decrypt the passwords that are saved, even LastPass themselves can't!

[artbuc]

Thanks!

[artbuc]

Quick update re LastPass. Did a trial run n my rig. Did not like it at all. Worked perfectly on some sites, not at all on others and malfunctioned on at least one (did not try all). Most of my banking sites were able to defeat or partially defeat LastPass. The Verizon webmail 2 step login made it go wacky as LP keep remembering the password and then incorrectly entered it in the username box on subsequent logins. On the simple logins such as eBay, the built-in Win 7 app worked almost as well without the hassle.

[soybean]

Most of my banking sites were able to defeat or partially defeat LastPass.

That's probably a good thing.  Do you really have so many bank accounts that you can't remember the passwords? 

... the built-in Win 7 app worked almost as well without the hassle.

Win 7 does  not have a built-in password-saving app.  Internet Explorer, Microsoft's web browser, can remember passwords, but not Windows 7. 

[artbuc]

That's probably a good thing.  Do you really have so many bank accounts that you can't remember the passwords? 
Win 7 does  not have a built-in password-saving app.  Internet Explorer, Microsoft's web browser, can remember passwords, but not Windows 7.

I have 15-20 bank accts plus medicare, ssa, several health and dental, many forums, ebay, Amazon, verizon webmail, iTunes, PayPal, etc, etc. I keep at least a dozen in my head because I use them frequently. The rest I have to look-up. My error re Win 7. I meant to say IE. I really did not have any personal interest. I was just evaluating it for a severely visually impaired relative. Just wanted to pass along my observations in case they would help others.

[soybean]

I have 15-20 bank accts ..

Wow, you have 15-20 bank, i.e. checking and savings, accounts?  Otherwise, my situation is similar to yours; I have scores of online accounts, including all the types you mentioned.  I actually keep passwords in an Excel file.  But, I have a system for structuring passwords which has allowed me to put asterisks in more than half of the character spaces in those passwords in the Excel file.  In other words, by seeing a few of the actual characters, I can recall the rest of the password. 

For forums, I generally use the same password for all of them.  They contain no financial information, no SSN, etc.