Technology has progressed as we have entered the 21st century. Connecting with loved ones and doing daily tasks at work were made easier through the use of emails, chats, social media accounts, and other applications used for work. This has also made working remotely possible with the advancement of technology.

Despite the significance of these advancements in making lives easier, it also led to creating several online and internal accounts to stay in touch and keep up with daily tasks. These accounts require passwords which could be difficult to remember at times.

Users tend to create one password for all their accounts to avoid being locked out or having to repeatedly click forget password and answer security questions. This is a big no-no because this means that your account may be unsecure and would pose a higher risk of being hacked.

What is a Password Manager?

To simply understand what a password manager is, it is a software application that saves online credentials which can also generate passwords for your account. A password manager can help users feel at ease and put an end to worrying since their accounts are safe and secure.

Since each online account should have a different password, a password manager can generate a unique password for each account and store it on their encrypted database. A master password is being used to easily access multiple accounts while ensuring safety and security of the said accounts.

What are the Benefits of a Password Manager?

Having a password manager is beneficial in our day-to-day tasks, especially at work. Some people have a hard time remembering their passwords in their different online accounts and that is where password managers come to the rescue.

Password managers are not only used to store passwords. They can also save different information such as profiles and secure access to credit card information to name a few. Having a secure account is essential as this also protects your data and information (may it be personal or for work).

Here are some benefits of having a password manager:

1.  Single access to all accounts – password managers can automatically fill out login credentials in one click. Memorizing passwords will no longer be a concern.

2.  Seamlessly change passwords – password managers can assist in changing passwords should there be a security breach to make users feel safe.

3.  Managing shared accounts – though it is not advisable to share passwords, some operational tasks would require multiple users for a single account. Password manager can allow you to control who has access to each password and change them as necessary in an efficient manner.

4.  Syncing of data across multiple devices – use of smartphones or tablets apart from desktops and laptops are now necessary as people are more on-the-go. Syncing data from one device to another can be done with the use of password managers.

The only downside to having a password manager is that it needs to be connected to the internet for users to operate these softwares. Overall, having a password manager is beneficial for the daily tasks needed in work and personal use. Choosing the right one may be difficult with all the password managers available in the market.

Are Password Managers Safe and Secure?

Despite the need of password managers, people may have doubts in trusting these types of services since it involves important and sensitive data. Of course, users would assume that password managers can also be hacked. However, the difference between having a password manager is that it gives users its own master password which even the application software developers could not access. This means that your passwords and other vital information are stored in an encrypted database.

To put it simple, password managers are safe and secure. With recent reports of data breaches rising, password managers can be a tool to keep encrypted data and information safely stored and breaking that encryption is almost impossible.

The security of your account and other sensitive information would also be subject to the strength of your master password. Password managers add an additional layer of security by having a separate server for your master password and encrypted information.

Have you heard of Psono?

Based in Germany, Psono was initially programmed in 2015, and was publicly launched in 2017 as a side project by its founder, Sascha Pfeiffer. In 2020, he further pursued Psono and founded esaqa GmbH, an IT company, which mainly caters security and privacy services.

Psono is an open source password manager which keeps your information safe and secure. It gives its users the capability to create, store, and share data through its secured cryptographic servers.

Psono promises to be secure, like any other password managers, as it uses end-to-end encryption that only their users have access to the keys needed to use and access the encrypted information on its server.

Unlike other password managers that use AES to encrypt data, Psono uses Curve25519 and Salsa20 in the form of NaCl (called Salt). NaCl’s secret key authentication is used to encrypt all information before closing your browser. Modern password managers use algorithms like Salsa20 which makes it easier and more straightforward to implement compared to AES that would need to adopt different modes to counter attacks.

Psono’s Key Features

What makes Psono secure? Psono has different key features that will help you manage your passwords and other sensitive data easier. Psono ensures the safety and security of their user’s data because of these 3 main features:

• Multi Encryption – this makes information on Psono’s database more secure by re-encrypting data one or more times starting with the end-user. This allows true end-to-end encryption for sharing of passwords which is followed by SSL and storage encryption.
• Open Source – as an open source password manager, this allows users to feel more secure about the information being stored because of transparency. This means that they can be audited by a third-party cybersecurity experts to ensure that no information is breached or hacked, and that it is secured as advertised.
• Self-hosted – this allows the users to host the server on their own and gain more control and would not rely on public services for data. Allowing users to host things on their own server makes Psono resilient from cyber attacks compared to other password managers that host things centrally which could easily expose the user’s stored passwords.

Other features include password syncing on multiple devices, importing and exporting of passwords from other password managers, multiple browser support, secure notes, password capture feature, and groups.

Apart from these, Psono also provides customer support that can get back to you immediately to answer your concerns and/or queries. In case users need to generate passwords only, Psono can help you by generating it through your browser.

Psono is available to download for mobile and would work on Mac, Windows, and Linux with the right browser. It is easy to use without feeling intimidated by its interface. It gives simple instructions on how to store your passwords and other sensitive information that need to be kept safe from data breach.

Pricing Plans

Psono offers different pricing plans at an affordable rate, depending on the end-user’s needs. Here are the various editions or pricing plans Psono offers:

Community Edition (CE)

This edition is free and open source with an unlimited number of users with community features and basic support. Best for personal use.

Enterprise Edition (EE)

Best for businesses with small teams, this edition is free up to 10 users with all functions:

• Community features
• LDAP & SAML & OIDC SSO
• Audit logging
• Compliance Enforcement
• Basic support

For bigger teams, Enterprise Edition is also offered for €2 per user per month (billed annually) with a minimum of 25 users.

Saas Edition (SaaS EE)

SaaS EE is a business plan hosted as service in the cloud priced at €3 per user per month with at least 25 users (billed annually). It also has the same functions as the EE with added hosting and updates.

With Psono, users may also ask for professional support or SLAs for the Enterprise Edition and the SaaS Edition.

Wrap Up

With all the different password managers available in the market, choosing the perfect password manager for you may be difficult. To know which password manager could be trusted, users should check if it provides the following:

• Open source for transparency;
• Encrypted database;
• Generated passwords;
• Cloud or self-hosted to ensure maximum security.
• Syncing across multiple devices;
• Available and can on various operating systems; and
• Multi-factor authentication or two-factor authentication.

One of Psono’s major strengths is its free plan which is available in different clients (source code, Google, Firefox, web client, and docker). It is also mobile-ready with apps available on iOS, Android, and also an Android .apk file.

Another one of their strengths is having different affordable plans for different business sizes making it a great factor in considering Psono as a password manager.

To know more about how Psono works, visit their website for a free online demo to see if it matches your needs.