Password Manager

A password manager is software that keeps all your digital account login information safe and organised. Rather than having to remember or manually store multiple passwords or use the same weak password across numerous platforms, you create one strong master password that opens your encrypted vault. It’s like a digital keychain that makes, saves, and fills in passwords automatically so your employees can keep their security strong without having to remember them.

Password management is the practice of creating, storing, and maintaining secure credentials across all your digital accounts. This process has three main parts: making strong and unique passwords, keeping them safe from unauthorised access, and regularly changing or updating credentials to lower security risks. It’s a field that demands both changes in how people act and ongoing technological support.

In recent years, effectively managing so many different passwords has become much harder. Today, the average person has 87 passwords to business-related apps and services. Cloud adoption and the growth of SaaS have contributed to this rising number, and new tools are always being added to the tech stack.

Working from home has made things even more complicated. Employees can use company resources from their home networks, coffee shops, and co-working spaces. From public Wi-Fi vulnerabilities to the human risks of remote work, every environment has its own weaknesses, and the old security perimeter is no longer there.

The human element is still the weakest link. People use the same password for many different services because it’s too hard to remember dozens of different passwords. When one service’s data is stolen, the reused credentials become keys that open many doors. Attackers know this and use credential stuffing attacks to test stolen credentials on different platforms all the time.

As a practice, password management is different from password managers as tools. The practice includes training for users and rules for how to keep credentials clean in the workplace. These tools automate and enforce these practices on a large scale. Both the tools and policies must work hand-in-hand to retain robust security.

Password managers are security programmes that make, store, and autofill login information for online accounts. These tools keep your passwords safe in a vault that only you can access with a single master password or biometric authentication.

Individual users no longer have to deal with sticky notes and browser autofill problems. Professionals keep their security up-to-date without having to remember a ton of complicated strings. It’s a flexible way for IT and security teams to enforce password policies and see how credentials are being used company-wide.

Different types of password managers fill different needs. Dedicated password management platforms have enterprise-level features like sharing credentials, access controls based on roles, and security audits. These tools work with single sign-on systems and give administrators access to centralised dashboards. A well-known Dutch study found that only 5% of employees actually use password managers that are available and provided by the company. This gap between deployment and adoption is still a problem for security teams.

A lighter option for storing passwords in browsers, like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox, is to use their built-in systems to save passwords and autofill forms. These built-in tools are excellent for basic personal use and don’t need any extra software. But they usually don’t have business features like secure sharing, administrative oversight, or advanced encryption options. They also link your credentials to a specific browser environment.

The differences between options matter, depending on user needs. For example, a freelancer might find that browser storage is all they need. A business with compliance obligations and hundreds of employees must have centralised control and tracking. Your organisation’s threat model, regulatory needs, and complexity determine the best choice of password managers.

Password managers use fundamental processes that work together to make managing your passwords easier without putting your security at risk.

• Encrypted vault: The passwords are stored in an encrypted vault. As such, even if the vault file is intercepted, its contents cannot be read unless the decryption key has been used.
• Master password authentication: Each employee uses one master password or biometric credential for access to all of their credentials. This means each employee only needs to remember one password. Enterprise versions may have Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality so that employees don’t have to remember yet another password.
• Password generation: Upon request, the software will create strong, random passwords. In that case, the generated passwords contain mixed-case letters, numbers, and special characters. This creates compliant passwords with minimal human intervention.
• Autofill and login assistance: The browser extension or mobile app identifies login pages and populates them with the user’s credentials. This helps eliminate user error and speed up the login process for accessing websites and other applications.
• Cross-device syncing: The encrypted vault syncs across all devices, including laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Regardless of what device you’re using, your credentials are always available.
• Additional secret storage: Password managers provide an area where you can securely store additional data, such as secure notes, API keys, credit cards, and recovery codes.

The biggest cause of security gaps in many organisations is reusing passwords. If an employee uses the same password across multiple accounts, a breach at one service puts many others at risk.

Why does that even happen? Because the cognitive load of keeping track of so many different passwords is too much to handle. Studies show that 65% of employees cut corners on security to get their work done faster. When managing passwords, no one can remember dozens of unique, complicated credentials without either writing them down or using easily-guessed patterns.

People usually pick weak passwords that are easy to remember or reuse a base password across different sites with slight variations. However, modern brute-force tools can break into systems in seconds using simple dictionary words, keyboard patterns like “qwerty”, and predictable sequences. Even passwords that seem safe often follow patterns that automated attacks can easily exploit.

Most attacks take advantage of people’s mistakes. An employee clicks a phishing link and enters their login information on a fake page. If that same password opens their email, file storage, and financial systems, one mistake can lead to a complete account takeover. The attacker can now move laterally throughout their whole environment.

Password managers tackle the root cause—cognitive overload—rather than symptoms. When strong, unique passwords require zero effort, security becomes the path of least resistance.

Password managers can serve many different uses depending on who’s using them and what they’re protecting. Here are the most common situations in which these tools prove helpful.

• Managing your own account: People use password managers for their email, bank, shopping, and social media accounts. The work logins and personal credentials are kept separate, which stops people from using the same password on different services.
• Business applications and enterprise SaaS: Employees use dozens of work tools every day, such as analytics dashboards, project management platforms, CRM systems, and communication apps. A password manager makes it easier to log in to all of these different apps.
• Access to VPNs and networks: Access to a company’s VPN or cloud infrastructure requires a set of credentials for remote employees to connect. A password manager secures network access credentials and saves time when connecting remotely by automating this process.
• Shared team credentials: Many teams are forced to use a shared account (e.g., social media profiles, analytics platforms, and SaaS tools, etc.). These tools enable password sharing without revealing the actual password to team member(s). They also offer a safer way to share sensitive data than insecure channels like email or Slack.
• Developer and IT credentials: Technical teams are in charge of SSH keys, API tokens, database passwords, and service account credentials. These important secrets require more protection than regular user passwords.
• Third parties and vendors: Companies give contractors, consultants, and vendors temporary access. Password managers help set up and take away these credentials without affecting the access of permanent employees.
• Mobile and cross-device access: Throughout the day, workers switch between tablets, phones, and laptops. Password managers make sure that your credentials are the same on all of your devices, so authentication works the same way no matter what.

Password managers automate a significant amount of work in credential security. However, technology by itself cannot address the issue. Everyone who manages sensitive accounts still needs to practice intentional habits and have security awareness to maintain good password hygiene.

Create Unique Passwords for Every Account

Don’t use the same password for more than one service or app. Debbie Rich, Sr. Product Marketing Manager at Proofpoint, says, “Once a login credential is exposed, attackers will try that same combination many more times.” When one account is hacked, unique passwords limit the damage to that one breach. Password managers make this easy by automatically creating and saving different passwords.

Prioritise Length Over Complexity

Long passwords and phrases made up of random words are often safer than short strings full of symbols. Rich says, “The best passwords are ones that are hard for other people to guess but still easy for you to remember.” Sheer length makes brute-force attacks harder to carry out over more complicated passwords.

Enable Multi-Factor Authentication Everywhere

MFA adds another step to check your identity besides your password. Even if attackers steal credentials, they still need that second factor to get into the account. This makes credential-based attacks much less likely to work.

Keep Your Password Manager Updated

Software updates patch security gaps that hackers are actively using. Turn on automatic updates where appropriate. Old password managers can become points of entry instead of barriers to entry.

Never Store Passwords in Plaintext

Do not keep your passwords in unencrypted notes, spreadsheets, browser bookmarks, or text files on your desktop. If someone gets access to your device or cloud storage, these storage methods don’t protect anything.

Exercise Caution with Autofill on Unfamiliar Sites

Phishing sites that look like real login pages can trick autofill features. Before letting your password manager fill in your credentials, check the URL. Some phishing attacks use autofill behaviour to steal credentials without the victim knowing.

Protect Your Master Password

The only key to your entire credential vault is your master password. Don’t write it down, but make it long, one-of-a-kind, and easy to remember. If someone gets your master password, they can see everything you’ve saved.

Password managers help keep your security in good shape, but they can’t replace your own judgement. According to the most recent information, 95% of data breaches are caused by people. You still need to know how to spot phishing attempts, make sure a site is real, and know when sharing your credentials is risky. While a password manager makes it easier to act safely, being aware of security risks is still your best defence.

Password managers strengthen credential security, but they also introduce vulnerabilities. Understanding these limitations helps you deploy them appropriately within a broader defence strategy. No single tool eliminates all risk.

• Master password becomes a single point of failure: All vaulted credentials are secured by a single master password. The fact that obtaining your master password compromises your entire vault poses a greater risk than traditional password management models, in which a breach compromises only a specific account.
• Device compromise exposes unlocked vaults: Advanced phishing attacks utilise replicas of legitimate web applications to steal usernames and passwords. When a user manually overrides an autofill warning or copies/pastes their username and/or password into a phishing attack, the password manager is unable to prevent the attacker from capturing the user’s credentials.
• Phishing sites can still capture credentials: Advanced phishing schemes will replicate a company’s legitimate login page in detail. Even if a user has enabled their password manager and receives an autofill warning (and clicks past it), they’re still susceptible to credential theft as long as they enter a password that is stored in the password manager.
• Quality and security vary across solutions: Not all password managers implement encryption correctly or follow security best practices. Some have experienced breaches that exposed master passwords or encryption keys. Others lack enterprise features like audit logging or administrative controls that security teams need for oversight.
• Cloud sync introduces additional attack surface: When using a password manager that allows syncing across multiple devices, you are storing your encrypted vault(s) on remote cloud servers. These are attractive to hackers seeking extensive collections of usernames and passwords. While these servers are generally protected with encryption, any implementation issue or weakness in the encryption used can lead to compromised data.

The best way to use a password manager is as part of a defence-in-depth plan. They don’t take the place of MFA, which keeps accounts safe even if passwords are stolen. They replace endpoint security tools that find malware and stop devices from being hacked. And they definitely don’t take the place of security awareness training that teaches employees how to spot phishing attempts and social engineering tricks. Today’s cybersecurity measures require multiple layers of protection that work together, so that if one fails, the whole system doesn’t fall apart.