Password Managers – Local vs Global
I’ve written a few articles already about the need for better passwords and the necessity of using a password manager. In this article I will point out why I think a local password manager is better.
Local
A local password manager is one that sits upon one device and does not back up to the cloud or anywhere remote location automatically. My own preference is to use something which is as simple as possible. This minimises the possible attack surface in case the password management software has a flaw. Let me recap what my password manager does / is:
- Save my passwords in an encrypted file
- The software is local to my computer
- There is a automatic backup file which is saved locally
- I can copy / paste the usernames and passwords
The password file is only saved to the computer on which I’m working. I have one manager on my work computer and one on my personal computer. There is no saving of passwords to the cloud, nor do the password managers have any sort of remote connectivity.
The software only saves passwords. That’s it. Nothing more. Let me outline why this is best.