LastPass

A password manager is an app on your phone, tablet or computer that stores your passwords, so you don’t need to remember them. Once you’ve logged into the password manager using a ‘master’ password, it  will generate and remember your passwords for all your online accounts. Many password managers can also enter your passwords into websites and apps automatically, so you don’t even have to type them in every time you log in.

We’re often told that the passwords for our online accounts should be really strong, and to not use the same password anywhere else. Especially for those important accounts like for your Clark passwords, banking, shopping and social media.

The trouble is, most of us have lots of online accounts, so creating different passwords for all of them (and remembering them) is hard.

This is where a password manager like LastPass can help. LastPass can store all your passwords securely, so you don’t have to worry about remembering them. This allows you to use unique, strong passwords for all your important accounts (rather than using the same password for all of them, which you should never do).

In addition, many password managers are helpful because they can:

• synchronize your passwords across your different devices, making it easier to log on, wherever you are, and whatever you’re using
• help spot fake websites, which will protect you from phishing attacks
• let you know if you’re re-using the same password across different accounts
• notify you if your password appears within a known data breach so you know if you need to change it
• work across platforms, so you could (for example) use a single password manager that would work for your iPhone and your Windows desktop

Clark’s implementation of LastPass has been designed to maximize the level of security, to the highest possible. Multiple departments, including ITS, rely on LastPass to protect credentials. The combination of LastPass and its integration with your existing Clark credentials in Microsoft, required password complexity, and multifactor authentication offers enhanced security of your content within LastPass. This architecture requires both LastPass and Microsoft be compromised to access our Vaults. 

No. Clark ITS, nor any other user, can see passwords stored outside of Shared Folders in your Vault. Passwords stored within Shared Folders are visible to users who have been granted access. 

To learn more about secure sharing, please review the Guidelines for Sharing Passwords.

LastPass is being offered as a benefit to the campus to support more secure sharing and maintenance of passwords. While we do strongly recommend using LastPass, especially for shared Clark passwords, ITS is not requiring its use.

In the future, individual departments who manage many shared passwords may require the use of LastPass for sharing and maintenance, and ITS will be happy to support this effort.

Since you will use your Clark password to log into LastPass, you should choose a password that is secure, and that you can remember.  However, it is still a good idea to store your password for your Clark account in LastPass to make it quicker and easier to sign in to different systems.

If you’ve stored your Clark account password in LastPass, but have forgotten it, please contact the Help Desk to have it reset.

When you graduate from Clark you will continue to have access to LastPass premium (linked to your non-Clark email address) for as long as Clark University subscribes to LastPass as a password manager.

Should Clark end its relationship with LastPass, your account will be transitioned to a free LastPass account. This will mean that you will continue to have access to any password saved to your vaults, but will lose access to premium features.

When you leave Clark as a staff or faculty member, your Institutional LastPass account will be disabled.

The accounts that you’ve created as part of your LastPass Family benefit will be transitioned to free LastPass accounts. This will mean that you will continue to have access to any password saved to your family and personal vaults, but will lose access to family and premium features.

LastPass supports importing passwords from a variety of other password managers, and provides an import tool for many of the most popular applications.

However, there is a known issue with using the import tool for importing from KeePass and so we recommend you import using CSVs. Click here for more information on how to import via CSV.