LastPass: Basics

LastPass: Basics

Overview

Just like you are expected to use your email and other important applications that are part of your job, you are expected to use LastPass for the increased security of firm and client information. LastPass is a password manager that works across your different devices and also keeps other secure information safe - secure notes, credit card information, Wi-Fi passwords, membership information, etc. 

The main way you will access LastPass is by using the LastPass extension to sign into your vault. Your vault can be accessed through the LastPass extension or an open browser tab. 

LastPass Vault

Your LastPass Vault is where your passwords and other secure information is stored. 
  1. Do not save personal information to your work LastPass account, and vice-versa
  2. Please pay attention to where a Vault entry is being saved
    1. If the item has been individually shared, you cannot change folders after the item is shared. For more flexibility with shared items, please consider putting them into shared folders instead. See Shared Entries and Folders​ for more information
    2. If your personal account vault is linked, make sure to keep work and personal entries separate


Use the + sign in the lower right-hand corner to add an entry to your vault. There are templates for different types of entries. 


Once you have saved an entry to your vault, you can search for it any time that you are logged into your LastPass Vault. You can copy/paste usernames and password directly from the entries without having to open them fully. 



LastPass Extension

On your Abdo laptop and in the cloud

IT has pre-installed the LastPass extension in Google Chrome on your firm laptop as well as in the cloud. One thing that you can do with the extension to increase the level of convenience is to pin the LastPass extension to your browser. NOTE: This has to be done separately for both in and out of the cloud. 



Why use the extension? 

The LastPass extension allows you to have full access to all of the features, which includes: 
  1. Automatic prompts to save or update website passwords 
  2. Ability to function like your bookmarks bar, with increased flexibility to launch saved websites from any device or browser
  3. Ability to quick look up credentials (or any entry) for items outside of your browser without having to open another tab
    1. Handy to find, then copy/paste, credentials for different apps that open outside of a browser
  4. Receive passwords that have been pushed to your account by the LastPass admins

How to tell if the extension is logged in

If the icon for the LastPass extension is  gray  or  yellow , you need to log back into the extension. 
If the icon for the LastPass extension is  red , you are logged in and it is ready for use. 

How to use the extension



When your cursor is over an entry in the extension or in your vault, a few buttons will appear: 
  1. FILL: If it's a website entry, it will offer to fill in both the username and password 
  2. COPY: When you click on this button, it will offer the ability to copy the username or password individually. If it's a note in your vault, this button copies the entire contents of the note. 
  3. EDIT: You can change an entry and its settings without having to go into your vault. If it's a note in your vault, you can access certain parts that you want to manually copy/paste or edit. 


Creating an entry in LastPass

You can add an entry to your LastPass account through the LastPass browser extension or from your vault. 



Passwords

Websites

If you are creating/changing website passwords in a browser where you have the LastPass extension installed and are logged in, you should get a prompt from LastPass to save/update the new credentials. 
  1. Verify that the username is correct
  2. Verify that the entry is being saved to the desired folder
There are features built into the LastPass browser extension that make it easy to generate and assign random passwords, even from the autofill buttons found in the credential fields. 


If the LastPass extension detects a change from the saved credentials, it will prompt you to verify whether or not the vault entry should be updated. 

Other Apps

If you are creating/changing passwords for something outside of a browser (e.g. Engagement, PM), you will have to manually edit the entry in your vault. 
  1. If you are using LastPass' random password generator, make sure that the new password is pasted into the vault entry within one minute of copying it
  2. Verify that the entry is being saved to the desired folder
If you update a password outside of a browser, you will need to manually update the vault entry to reflect the change. 

Other

For notes, credit cards, etc. please fill in the requested fields and verify the entries for accuracy.


Installing LastPass

On other browsers or personal computers

LastPass is available on multiple platforms, so you are able to access your passwords and other protected information from virtually any device. Since a free LastPass Premium account is included with your business account, you (and up to 5 additional standard accounts), you can download the LastPass extension and use that to access your vault.
For a full list of installation options across different types of computers: https://lastpass.com/misc_download2.php

Mobile app 

You can also access your LastPass Vault through the LastPass mobile app on a phone, tablet, or smart watch. 



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