Using LastPass to manage your passwords

UCL has acquired licenses for UCL users to use the enterprise version of LastPass. This blog article attempts to explain what LastPass is, why you should use it, and how to get a UCL LastPass account.

Why use a password manager like LastPass?

So, what is LastPass? LastPass is a password manager that allows you to store all your passwords encrypted in one place. The advantage of using a password manager over other methods of storing passwords is that you only ever have to remember one password instead of hundreds for all the individual accounts that you have. This is probably a good time to mention that you should never re-use a password for more than one account, if one account is compromised it could compromise all accounts that you have that use that same password. It’s really not worth the risk.

LastPass also allows you to share passwords with other LastPass users, so it’s ideal for using in teams that need to share passwords.

2 Factor Authentication

We highly recommend that you use 2 factor authentication with LastPass, this helps to protect against risks such as key logging software – by using 2 factor authentication if someone was to get your LastPass password they would not be able to access your account without your authenticator code. LastPass allows you to use authenticators such as Google Authenticator, LastPass Authenticator and many others.

How to get a UCL LastPass account

• We recommend that you download the browser plugin from LastPass and/or the app from the app store for your mobile.
• The browser plugin has been pre-installed on all Desktop@UCL Windows 10 machines.
• Then email isg@ucl.ac.uk who will then provision an account for you.

The license we have for LastPass provides two password vaults, one for UCL related passwords and one for personal passwords.  The one for personal passwords can be taken with you if you leave UCL and used with the free consumer version of LastPass.

Training options

LastPass is intuitive and easy to use, however they do provide training materials which can be found through the link below:

https://support.logmeininc.com/lastpass/help/use-the-self-service-training-portal-lp010031

If you have any questions or would like further information, just send us an email: isg@ucl.ac.uk.