Although we are recommended to change our personal information for every website that requires a username and password, that’s near impossible. We can configure our web browser, such as Firefox 3, to remember our login information, but this is useless if we need to move to an alternative computer. You may not want your work computer to store your personal login/pass for your social networking sites.

For this reason, we need an alternative. The ideal program would be able to store your passwords locally and securely, then synchronise your data across to other computers, so you do not have to remember passwords for every machine or browser. You should be offered the option to store the passwords online, so you can quickly populate a web form without having to remember the information.

LassPass is a password manager that enables you to open a secure account with the technology company and store all your usernames, passwords and other form information on their site and then drop this information in to a web form, using an add-on in your browser. You only need to remember your master password to access the other passwords (although you’ll need to keep this master password secure and safe or someone will have instant access to all your personal data).

LastPass will work across every modern browser, from Firefox and Internet Explorer through to Google Chrome and Apple Safari, whether it’s a Windows or Mac version of the browser. Better still, it’s not just limited to passwords or form information. You can create sticky notes for particular web sites and, once logged in, see the notes that apply to each site. This is particularly important for logging in to your credit card provider’s website where they often ask you for far more than username, passwords and other info.

Note that the download here is for the Windows version. A Mac and Linux version of the Firefox add-on is available from the LastPass homepage.