Are you tired of trying to come up with unique passwords for your school logins? What about those pesky database passwords. Credit cards? Don’t get me started. Every student should use a password manager, and here are several ways you can employ one in your student life.
Memorable Passwords Can Be Easy to Guess
We’re all guilty of using memorable passwords for our online accounts. Often, you might even reuse the same password for many accounts (I’ve been guilty of this too). While this is easy for you to remember, it also makes the password easy to guess for hackers.
With everything you have to remember as a student, a complex password is likely the last thing on your list—that’s where password managers come in. With a password manager, you just have to remember the primary password to your catalog and then it remembers everything else for you.
A complex password is obviously harder to guess, but you still don’t want to use the same password for every service. If a social media platform gets hacked, and you used the same password for that social media platform as your bank account, then your bank is also compromised.
However, if you use complex and unique passwords for each account you have, then one service getting hacked doesn’t mean all of your accounts are at risk—only the hacked account is, and it’ll be easy to change the password to some other random string in your password manager.
There’s Lots of Logins to Remember
There’s another problem when it comes to logins: everything has one. You have a password for your Google account, bulletin board for school, Microsoft, and other online accounts—all of which have different websites and password requirements.
I remember from my days in college trying to remember which variation of which password I used for each login. Sometimes I’d add an exclamation mark at the end, sometimes the beginning. Sometimes I’d swap a o for a 0, and sometimes it would even just be a capital O.
It was never-ending. Plus, some logins themselves were just crazy to remember. Many college logins feel like random characters and numbers (though there’s typically a rhyme or reason for it)—but that doesn’t make it any easier to remember.
Password Managers Remember More Than Just Passwords
Here’s the thing about password managers: they remember far more than just logins.
Using a password manager makes it so you just have to memorize a single password (for the manger itself) and then the manager remembers everything else. Logins, passwords, databases, credit cards, campus Wi-Fi credentials—you name it, a password manager remembers it.
I use 1Password personally, and I have all kinds of things stored in it. My Amazon password is around 30 characters long and is a mix of upper and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. It’s crazy how complex it is, yet I don’t have to remember it.
I also use 1Password for all of my databases in my homelab. As a CS student, you might have access to a few different MySQL databases, with various strong passwords to remember. Don’t try to memorize them or write them down, just put them into a password manager.
Credit cards are also one of those things that you’ll probably be entering often. I love having my credit cards in 1Password, as I can insert the entire card number, CVV, expiration date, and billing information with a few quick clicks—no typing required.
1Password Offers an All-in-One Solution for Free to Students
As part of the GitHub Student Pack, students can actually get a full year of 1Password completely free. This is an all-in-one solution that works on Windows, Linux, macOS, iPhone, Android, ChromeOS, and just about every other platform out there.
1Password isn’t just about saving passwords though. It also works to save credit card information, password-protected notes, SSH credentials, and so much more.
Having a single application that handles all of your digital life can be a bit concerning for some, and I totally understand that. I was a bit wary too, but I fully trust 1Password.
Compared to other password managers out there, 1Password is routinely audited by third-parties. LastPass, for comparison, has been breached many times and their security is questionable at best.
There Are Self-Hosted Options If You Prefer to Tinker
While I absolutely love 1Password—and have used the service for nearly a decade at this point—I totally understand that you might not trust third parties with your passwords, credit card information, or SSH keys.
In those cases, there are self-hosted password managers out there. You’re in the driver’s seat for how your data is managed, protected, and shared.
Really, there are two main choices in this arena: KeePass and Bitwarden. Choosing between the two can be a bit tricky, though Bitwarden is the easiest of the two to set up if you value simplicity.
Using 1Password Is Simpler Than You Think
Honestly, with how many platforms 1Password works on, it’s pretty simple to use. I use the dedicated app on my MacBook and Windows PC, as well as my iPhone, iPad, and Android. I also have the Chrome/Safari extensions installed, and it even works on my Chromebook.
Using 1Password is simple. When you’re on a website, you can use the browser extension to create a login typically from the pop-up on the username or password field. If that doesn’t work, you can always manually create a login in the main app.
I’ve used both methods depending on what I’m doing and they each work just as good as the other. Most things are going to be considered “logins”, though obviously credit cards go under their category and so forth.
Simply choose the right category, type in the relivant info (username, website address, etc.) then click “Create a New Password.” This will generate a password using the configuration you’ve chosen (length, type, numbers, and symbols) and insert it into the field.
You can then copy the password or have it auto inserted on the page. Just make sure you click the save button somewhere, be that in the browser or the dedicated app. If you don’t, then the generated password isn’t saved and you’ll have to reset your password to get into the service again.
That’s all there is to it! While I used to use the same password for a bunch of services, I now use unique and ambiguous passwords for every service I sign up for.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for what you should have as a student, however. Preparing for a new academic year has all sorts of challenges with password management just being one of them.
Keeping up with what projects, tests, quizzes, and reading assignments you have coming up can also be a chore. For that, you’ll want a solid productivity app. It’s sometimes hard to find the right one. I know, I’ve used quite a few of them.
Here are some of the best productivity apps on the market right now though. Most do have a subscription element, but they’re completely worth it.