Password Manager Systems

What is a Password Manager?

A password manager is a software program that stores log-ins for all the websites that the user visits, as it helps them log-in automatically as well. The manager then secures and encrypts the whole password database, and then allows for a master password to be the one password for the user to remember in accessing everything.

Password Manager Systems

Along with the intricacies of the internet and its innovations in the security industry, the password manager has evolved into different types of systems that enable it to adapt to different industry needs.

Types of Password Manager Systems

• Direct to Consumer

This type of system is almost basic but it definitely is an effective manager for securely storing your passwords. That also includes sharing login details with your family, colleagues, clients, and partners. Simple, robust, and uncomplicated, it is usually hosted from a secure cloud system that can serve either personal or team password management customers.

This type of password manager can protect your data against hacking while simultaneously allowing you to share your password without the risk of data leaks. Moreover, since the direct-to-consumer manager system is mainly a cloud-based system, you, as the user, benefit from the convenience of being able to securely access your data from any device, any place, and at any time. This manager encrypts your password on the service provider’s network which makes him responsible for securing your passwords.

Web-based password managers can be hosted in different formats namely: browser extensions, desktop-based apps, and mobile applications.

• Password Vault That is Fully Joined with Your Infrastructure

Password Vault – by definition is an application that securely stores your passwords in a designated location using one master to access all your other passwords.

Take note that a fully integrated enterprise password management solution has everything encrypted from the master to the stored keys. This makes it a reliable system that can work in larger corporations and other companies of similar size. A corporate password vault has more capabilities than your basic password manager. It is integrated and embedded in the company’s data infrastructure making it an indispensable part of the company’s systems.

Even though it is generally a little bit more expensive to acquire and maintain, it is very useful for heavily regulated industries like the banking, healthcare or law sectors. It works in and around your system to handle data internally. This system is also scalable and highly adaptable to the specific needs of your company. This type of password manager is still very much in use today in spite of the upward trend of systems migration to the cloud.

• Open Source Password Management System

To gain a better understanding of how an open-source password manager system works and how you will benefit, you will have to make a comparison of it against a closed source password manager.

Open Source Manager

An open-source solution allows you to customize the tool in ways that are specifically tailored to your password security needs. You can even create additional security peripherals and also include UX/UI customizations. This method offers a wider range of creativity on how intricate and stonewalled you want your security to be.

However, the downside to this is, you will have to be an intermediate level cybersecurity expert as well as have some decent IT skills to be able to make the modifications. This is good if you can do it yourself. If not you will have to hire someone to do the mods and maintenance for you which incidentally will be an additional expense on your part as the owner/user.

Closed Source Software

This type of software is proprietary and is licensed. This means that no one is allowed to use, make modifications, and or distribute it without the owner’s consent. This generally makes any innovation or verification on the software prohibited to anyone except for the developer. The code is locked up and there is no way for anyone to analyze it.

Looking at it from a security standpoint the closed source software somehow comes full circle with the question of, ‘Can you trust the developer enough to commit your data with no way of being able to retrieve it yourself in case of a breach?” Risk becomes the developer and his capability to hold the fort. Although, the upside of this system is if the developer has already built a solid reputation over the years. If that’s the case, then trust becomes his currency as more people use his system. This is without saying that he must continue to improve on the system that he was able to establish.

Why Do Some People Regard Open Source as the Gold Standard?

Granted that a password management system is an open-source manager: it is important that it meets privacy and security standards to the tee. What it does is that it allows verification from experts or anyone who wants to verify for that matter. This is to find out that if the code being used is truly reliable. That means no mistake, no weak points, and no backdoors. Any claims that a developer makes whether it be encryption standards, data transmission, management of keys, and synchronization across devices, will then be truly verifiable by anyone at any time. These things are possible within the parameters of open source systems.

The close vs. open-source software debate remains. Albeit open-source is currently largely favored by consensus among experts and even non-experts alike.

• Private Cloud Hosting of Password Vaults

Private Cloud hosting means a password vault that is attached to a cloud that is secured and is not shared with any other entity. Unlike a public cloud wherein a user shares the space with other customers, private cloud hosting doubles your vault’s security and further isolates it from cyber threats.

• On-Premise Hosting of Password Managers

On the same level as private cloud security is on-premise hosting. The primary benefit to this is that you as the owner get to keep your company’s information close by or just right inside your physical premises. Nothing can be accessed from the outside and nothing can be stolen from the inside out.

In addition to that, IT personnel have full control over the automation, rotation, and even the deletion of passwords as employees arrive and leave the company. Both Private Cloud and On-premise hosting of your password manager can work for you in the event that you will need additional security for your sensitive data and passwords.

Conclusion

Knowing the basics of the available modes of password manager systems will be the steps in achieving that level of security that you need for you and your company. PassCamp is one such provider that can address these needs for your peace of mind.