The last password you’ll have to remember: LastPass Review

LastPass is a password management service that is focused on resolving the problem we all have with remembering the many passwords of our accounts.

The idea of this service is to centralize the password management in the cloud. It’s a web interface with plug-ins and apps for almost all modern web-browsers and mobile editions.
All the passwords that you save to LastPass are protected by a master password, that’s where the LastPass’ motto comes from – “The last password you’ll have to remember”.
The passwords are encrypted locally and are cross-browser synchronized. LastPass uses form filler which automatically fills the forms. It supports strong secure password generation, site sharing and site logging.

LastPass offers free basic account and Premium upgrade for US $12 per year.
Last stable release is version 3.1.88/89.

LastPass offers variety of options including importing and exporting passwords, portable access, multi-factor authentication and password-fingerprint verification. For the premium accounts mobile versions of the cross-platform synchronization is available.

Many online password manager users would argue about the issue whether LastPass improves the online safety. The difference between all the other password managers and LastPass is not only the diversity of the features LastPass offers, but also it examines your computer environment at its installation and recommends the best plug-in package for your browser and operating system, and takes inventory of the insecure passwords in your system.

During your online activity LastPass collects lists of your passwords and enables you to organize them in online identities. You can create personal or work identity. You can even create form-fill profile that contains credit card numbers so that you can apply them with just a click and save a lot of time and fatigue while shopping. There is even address fill-form.

One other thing where LastPass and its features differ from other password managers is site sharing. This is one cool tweak I like a lot, to be able to share your credentials with someone that needs this permission without revealing any password.

LastPass’ security options are definitely in users’ favor. You can decide whether LastPass should log you out every time you close the browser you use and what it does between sessions. You can even determine how quickly the clipboard is cleared when you copy-paste passwords. You can limit the time interval of your active sessions on the LastPass server.

The ability to use one-time passwords and virtual on-screen keyboards that enable you to input your password with mouse clicks is very useful regarding the problems many users face with keyloggers.
About resolving this issue, LastPass is very helpful with its multi-factor authentication I mentioned already. This feature uses email or text with one-time-only code that you type into your online account besides the master password. For the Premium users this multi-factor authentication is expanded and offers YubiKey Multi-Factor Authentication, Google Authenticator, Fingerprint Authentication, Grid Multi-Factor Authentication, Smart Card Authentication and Sesame Multi-Factor Authentication.

Another useful LastPass feature is IE Anywhere that allows you to log in to your LastPass Vault from any computer and lets you manage your account and data. This feature, which allows you to use LastPass even on computers where you don’t have permissions to install plug-ins, is available for Premium users only.

In my opinion, although it might seem likely insecure to confide all passwords in one place, and making it very easy for a hacker to crack just one master password to get them all, with LastPass this is just not the issue. There’s always room for improvement, of course, but LastPass is a tool that is a valuable asset as online password manager offering higher level of security comparing to all similar apps which are its competitors.