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Hi y’all —
The other day I was browsing Good Reads when I discovered what sounded like the perfect book for me. It was titled Grace and the Fever, and as I skimmed the summary I couldn’t believe I hadn’t found it sooner:
“In middle school, everyone was a Fever Dream fan. Now, a few weeks after her high school graduation, Grace Thomas sometimes feels like the only one who never moved on ... Then, one summer night, the unthinkable happens: Grace meets her idol, Jes. What starts out as an elusive glimpse of Fever Dream's world turns into an unlikely romance, and leads her to confront dark, complex truths about herself and the realities of stardom.”
My YA-loving, boy band-obsessed heart leapt as I bought the $10.99 Kindle version and eagerly began reading. The first couple pages felt eerily similar, but I chalked it up to the genre (and, uh, the fact that I’ve consumed a LOT of fan fiction).
But a couple of chapters later, it dawned on me. There was a reason this book sounded so great to me — I’d already read it. Years ago. I had simply forgotten.
Clearly, my memory can be bad, and it has the unfortunate side effect of meaning my online accounts also aren’t very secure. I’m straight-up unable to remember complicated passwords. We’ve talked before about expert-approved tools that create/store/fill in super-secure passwords, but I’m wondering whether I should take it to the next level.
Do I need to pay for a password manager?
I called Dave Hatter, a cybersecurity consultant with Intrust IT in Cincinnati, to get the lowdown on password managers. He said he's fond of highly rated tools like LastPass, Dashlane and Keeper.
“I feel pretty safe recommending to anyone check out any of those three,” he says. “Whether you should pay or not depends on what you’re trying to accomplish.”
All three of those brands have free options that provide customers with a virtual password vault. They also all have staggered membership tiers with premium features like dark web monitoring, syncing across devices and tech support. Costs vary — Keeper has options that cost $2.91, $4.87 and $6.01 per month, while Dashlane offers $4.99 and $9.99 monthly levels.
LastPass is Hatter’s personal favorite, though. And he told me the free version “is an amazingly good fit for most people who just need a secure password manager.”
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Luckily for my budget, there’s no big correlation between fees and security here. When paying for a password manager, “you’re not really getting safer — you’re just getting more advanced features, more options,” Hatter adds.
Paying might be worth it, of course, if I felt I needed emergency access or encrypted file storage. But I don’t deal in sensitive state secrets — I can’t even manage to download books I haven’t read before — so the free version probably does what I need.
From there, the hurdle is coming up with a master password to unlock the manager. It must be something I can remember but others can’t guess.
Hatter said that password guidance used to suggest more complicated, mumbo-jumbo passwords were better. But a couple of years ago, the National Institute of Standards and Technology changed its best practices. Now, it’s generally thought that a coherent passphrase is the way to go. (Lengthy passwords, especially with special characters, take longer for brute-force hackers to crack.)
To make this master password, Hatter recommended I start by writing out a passphrase that I’d know but nobody else would. For example, ilovenickjoekevinjonas won’t work — I talk about them too often for it to be secret. But something like mintchocolatechipismyfavoritetypeoficecream would.
Next, he said I should mix it up with symbols and punctuation. Maybe mintchocolatechipismyfavoritetypeoficecream becomes m1ntchoc0latechipismyf@voritetyp3oficecre4m!
“It’s still easy to remember, but someone would have to know which characters you replaced and get the whole phrase right to get in,” Hatter says.
Note that this phrase theory doesn’t apply to the individual sites I keep within LastPass. LastPass will come up with, store and fill crazy-complicated passwords for those for me. We’re only talking about the master password.
It’s worth taking the time to make sure it’s secure because if someone guesses it, “they have the keys to my entire kingdom,” he adds. |
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(but please don't tell me you scrolled past all of my hard work)
For my purposes, a free password manager will do just fine. There’s no need to pay to upgrade unless I need special features.
Hatter said I should compare LastPass, Dashlane and Keeper and see which appears like it’d work best for me. No matter which I choose, I’ll need to think hard about a good master password. If I combine a long, number-studded, unguessable passphrase with multifactor authentication, I should be good to go. |
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check out this crazy celebrity purchase |
Baseball player Jon Lester ran up a colossal bar tab last weekend when he bought Miller Lite to thank his supporters. In all, the pitcher purchased 4,838 beers and spent $47,094.90 at four Chicago bars. (You can see the receipts on his Twitter.) Lester also tipped 34%, his uniform number, making this a home run for bartenders and Cubs fans alike. |
five things I'm loving online right now |
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I love this MEL Magazine piece in support of “normal” gossip — trivial news or overheard conversations about things that don’t concern you. “Eavesdropping has always been one of life’s little joys; now it’s more concentrated, more potent,” it reads. “A slice of someone’s experience outside your mental prison, served like an hors d’oeuvre.” Yum. |
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Can’t decide whether I am enamored with or terrified of these gigantic straw gorillas in Thailand. |
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Need some soothing music? Check out the replies to this tweet where people gave each other feel-good song recommendations. Might I suggest “This Year” by The Mountain Goats?
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Do yourself a favor and visit the subreddit /r/TruckerCats, which — as you might guess — is filled with photos of pet cats truckers have taken with them on the road. Come for the pics of kittens lounging in the sun, stay for the posts imagining what it’d be like if the animals themselves took the wheel.
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Did you guys know there’s a mineral that looks just like tiny grapes?
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send me cute pictures of your pets, please |
Meet Johnny, a cat who uses a free passfurd manager for all of his pawsonal information. |
I’m going to attempt to find an actually NEW book to read. Wish me luck.
See you next week.
Julia
P.S. You guys are well aware of the dangers of shopping online — particularly Scholar Jenna, who told me the biggest threat to her wallet is her TikTok habit. She's bought a fancy water bottle, tie-dye sweats and a puffer coat so far, which is relatable. I also got some real nice feedback from Scholars Garey and Kakoli.
P.P.S. Do you use a password manager? Do you think those straw gorillas are scary? Do you have any hot gossip you can share with your favorite Dollar Scholar? Give me the tea at julia.glum@money.com or @SuperJulia on Twitter. I may feature your reply in a future issue! |
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