10 Tips To Keep All Your Passwords Safe

Password managers are dime a dozen these days, but BitWarden is an overlooked gem that deserves more attention. It has all the features you’d expect in a good password manager— easy and convenient to use, but locking your sensitive data away in a highly encrypted vault. It offers two-factor authentication (2FA) for extra security, and makes it easy to generate new random secure passwords for all your accounts. It also works across a wide range of devices.

What we love about BitWarden is that it’s open source, so more transparent than other password managers. It’s also free—no key features are locked away behind a paywall, although premium tiers exist if you need something extra or want to support it financially. We’ll explore its core features here, and get you started protecting your online accounts. –

- Nick Peers

1 SIGN UP FOR FREE ACCOUNT

Open your web browser and go to https://bitwarden.com. Click “Create Account,” and provide your email address, name, and a Master Password [image a] to unlock everything else (length is more important than randomness when creating a strong Master Password—for example, “1Penzance4Harrison8Westerly”). If you use the “Password hint” field, make sure it’s a clue only you can guess. Click “Submit.”

2 INSTALL BITWARDEN

Next, log in through BitWarden’s web interface at https://vault.bitwarden.com, and click “Send Email” to verify your email address and unlock all the features. Once done, click the icon in the top-right corner, and choose “Get the Apps.” Install the Windows app to manage sites outside your browser, plus the appropriate plugin for your web browser.

3 ADD YOUR FIRST PASSWORD

Look for the BitWarden icon in the browser toolbar, and click it to open a pop-up window. Log in to your account, so the icon turns blue, then close the pop-up for now. Navigate to your first website, and log in as normal—you may see a prompt to add the password to BitWarden (in which case do so); if not, click the “BitWarden” button to add it manually [image B].