Hi, Chief Geek Gildas Jones here.
One of the most issues that IT helpdesk people deal with is passwords. So I want to talk to you about the best way to securely share passwords with your team.
As a business owner in 2015 you probably have at least 40 login usernames and passwords, I know I do.
Email, HMRC, Mobile Phone Billing, Suppliers Web portals, your Website, Your Online Database, Amazon, Dropbox, Adwords, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, the list goes on…
And to be secure all of these passwords have to be different and of sufficient length and complexity.
Right now, you’re managing this in whatever fashion you can, this might be written down in a book, the Keychain on a Mac (Safari saved passwords) saved in Chrome/Firefox/Internet Explorer, or just remembered because you only have three passwords you use for everything.
Though it might not be the most secure and you might have to reset your password occasionally when you lose your notebook, your system works for you.
But what happens when you need to securely share logins with your Staff, VA, Accountant, Bookkeeper or Freelancers?
This is when you need better system to manage your companies passwords.
There are various password managers out there, but in my opinion as a business owner the best one for teams is Lastpass
Along with securely storing your passwords it allows you to securely share a subset of logins.
Another feature that puts Lastpass above other password management systems is the option to hide or reveal the password when you share logins. This means the the rest of the team can’t see that embarrassing password you set (embarrassing in terms of content or lack of complexity, of course).
There are two versions of Lastpass that allow you to share logins with your team:
Lastpass Premium has a shared family folder (your team. The logins in this folder can be shared with anyone of your choosing, so this option is perfect if you have a small team you want to share with. As you update the passwords the settings are synced across so no one loses the ability to log in.
Lastpass Enterprise has a lot of extra functions and sharing settings, including single sign on and active directory integration.
If you use Lastpass premium you can share with free accounts, so not everyone needs the premium account. Lastpass Enterprise limits the number of free-users you can share with to 5.
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