Most of us have dozens of online accounts and — let's be honest — reuse a handful of passwords across all of them. Security experts call this the single biggest avoidable risk in personal cybersecurity. The fix is a password manager: one app that creates, stores and fills unique passwords for every site.
How they work
You remember a single strong master password. The manager encrypts everything else behind it, generates 20-character random passwords you never need to memorise, and auto-fills them when you log in. Many also warn you about breached or reused passwords.
Getting started
Pick a reputable manager, install its browser extension and phone app, then change your most important passwords first — email, banking, and social accounts. Import your browser's saved passwords to migrate in minutes. After a week, you will wonder how you ever lived without it.
Common worries
"What if the manager gets hacked?" Reputable ones use zero-knowledge encryption: even the company cannot read your vault. "What if I forget my master password?" Write it on paper and store it somewhere safe — old-fashioned, but effective.