L is for LastPass

 A to Z(ed) blogging Challenge - (my) Life in the TIme of CoVid-19

 L is for LastPass

In the summer of 2019 my son introduced me to using LastPass to store my passwords.  I had a 'little black book' of all the passwords I used for all the apps and programs I use, which replaced a sheet of paper I had for years.  Not very secure I know.

Also not very secure was the fact that I used the same two or three passwords for everything. 

Since I had time on my hand this past year (thank you CoVid-19?), I slowly started to go through all my accounts and let LastPass give me a secure password.  They are always weird combinations of numbers/letters/special characters/capitals and lowercase.  Something like this:

*hL64N8MPP3

It was a long and tedious process, and especially when changing really important  passwords I would write them down in my logbook.  I didn't put the account name with the password so should my logbook go missing it will all be okay.  

Many years ago I wrote about the tedium of passwords and wouldn't it be nice if the world was just a safe and honest place and no-one was ever trying to steal my information.  You can read that post from 2011 here.

Well, as my mother always said, "If wishes were horses then beggars would ride."

LastPass still reminds me when I have a duplicate password, or when a password I have been using isn't very secure.  Recently there was a lot of hullabaloo about LastPass asking users to upgrade to be able to access their vault of passwords on both their phone and computer.  I went for it - spending the three bucks a month.  Good deal for peace of mind my son suggested and he is right. 

An interesting anecdote about the timing of my learning about, and how to use LastPass.  A month after I started to use it a very dear friend died and I was helping his wife with paperwork and their accounts the following month.  We discovered he used LastPass for all his passwords.  She hadn't known anything about it.  I was grateful that I new what LastPass was and how to use it. 

I remembered to thank my Higher Power for what seemed like serendipidity. 

I have come to realize that coincidences and serendipidity are really proof that God is in my life and looking out for me.  

PS:  I have no affiliation to LastPass and this is not an endorsement of the product.  It is just what I use and it fit the bill for my L post.