Tech Tips: Password Management

What is your Mother’s maiden name?  Harrison.

What is the name of your first school?  Thornton.

What is the first name of your oldest nephew?  Jimmy.

These are standard questions that you answer when you forget your password.  But if you are the target of a hacker, chances are good that they already know at least some of this information about you. So, how do you get around that? 

Simply use an answer that has no relevance to the question and is easy to remember. 

What is your Mother’s maiden name?  DukeIsNumberOne. 

What is the name of your first school?  DukeIsNumberOne. 

What is the first name of your oldest nephew?  DukeIsNumberOne.

You get the idea.  Be creative and make it memorable.  You’ll have answers that are nearly impossible for a hacker to guess.

What is LastPass?

LastPass is an easy-to-use tool – approved by the Duke Health Information Security Office - that stores all of your UserIDs and passwords into a “vault”, available from each of your devices.  You can use this tool on every website that requires you to login.  Here are some of the features:

• Generate secure, random passwords – having a unique, strong and easily remembered password for every site is hard.  LastPass will generate strong passwords for you, then type them in for you so you won’t have to remember them. 
• Safe automatic form-fill – LastPass allows you to create multiple profiles that will automatically fill in a form for you when you are purchasing or registering online.  It’s a much safer alternative to the browser-based form-fill add-ins.
• Digital Wallet – Keep all of your sensitive information in a secure and accessible place.  For example, your WiFi network login, a PIN code, a copy of your insurance card, etc.
• Share a password – Do you co-pay bills, manage a joint checking account or some other function that requires a shared password?  Use LastPass to securely share a section of your password vault with a spouse or parent.

How do I Get it?

LastPass is available from the Duke University Office of Information Technology (OIT) website. Follow these instructions to download and begin using it.

• Click here to go to the OIT Software Licensing website
• Select the Search For Software option
• Login with your NetID and password
• In the Search terms to the left, type LastPass in the box and press the magnifying glass
• Select the icon, add it to your cart, then checkout

How do I use it?

OIT provides a nice set of videos to introduce LastPass to you, available through Lynda.com.  These videos are short, concise and well-produced.  Select the one(s) that interest you most, starting with Section 1 – Getting Started with LastPass.  The time investment you make in watching these short videos will pay off by the enhanced security it provides, plus it will eliminate the frustration surrounding trying to remember all of those passwords.

Going Deeper

Would you like to learn more about LastPass?  Click here to go to the LastPass OIT website, and click here to visit their corporate website.  Duke University offers information on a wide variety of topics related to IT Security.  Click here to learn more about how to protect yourself online.

Have any questions about this or other tech used at DUSON?

As always, if you have any technical questions or problems, please contact your IT Service Desk at 919-684-9200, or email to citdl@mc.duke.edu.