Merry Christmas! I missed last week as I was under the weather, but now am back. This week we talk about a great add-on for your LastPass account.
I wrote about LastPass awhile back and it has been an application that has truly saved my sanity ever since I realized how safe, effective and timesaving it is. It’s been endorsed by the paranoid Security Expert, Steve Gibson, and that’s good enough for me.
Recently, LastPass added a multi-factor add-on for all their customers. Multi-factor simply seems that whenever you log in to an account, you must give more than one piece of identification. So in addition to entering in my password, I also will use Google Authenticator on my mobile phone to let LastPass know it’s really me. It’s something I know (password) and something I have (phone).
Since this is from Google, it’s easily installed on any Android phone or device. There’s also an iPhone/iPad/iPodTouch & Blackberry app that will help you get going. I have a Windows Phone 7 and I was happy to see that someone had developed one for the WP7. I wish I could say I had an easy time getting it installed and working, but alas, it was difficult. Below is one of the steps for getting the WP7 app on my phone.
After you have installed the app on your phone, then click to follow directions to authenticate your phone with LastPass. You’ll be taken to a screen at the LastPass site where you can either scan your barcode into your phone, or you can choose to get a code delivered to your phone, type it in the box on the computer screen, click ‘Authenticate’ and you’re in.
It should be noted that you’ll have to use multi-factor authentication (your phone), to access your LastPass Vault only on unfamiliar or untrusted devices. I’m glad they built that in as it would be silly to have to use this system with your desktop or laptop. There is also a drop down to allow or disallow off-line access. This means, if you are having connectivity issues and are off-line, you can still log into your LastPass Vault. Again, a smart move.
This page contains a comprehensive User’s Manual for LastPass. If you don’t have a smart phone, there are still other ways to keep your LastPass account safe and secure. There are many other great features of LastPass in the manual, it’s a good one to look through.