Introduction
Last year, HP announced their partnership with consumer VPN provider, ExpressVPN. This partnership meant that future HP devices would ship with the VPN app preinstalled, along with a free 30-day trial.
This was not the end to cybersecurity partnerships. On September 24 th , 2020, ExpressVPN did just that by announcing a newfound partnership with password manager LastPass.
What does this partnership bring to users? Is this partnership in any way significant? Let’s talk more about it below.
Details on the New Partnership
LastPass and ExpressVPN announced their partnership on September 24 th , along with the announcement that the partnership would be effective immediately following the post. So what does this partnership bring to users of ExpressVPN and LastPass?
For starters, the major benefit of this partnership will come to existing and future LastPass Premium/Family subscribers. Existing subscribers will receive a free 30-day trial to ExpressVPN—a deal similar to the one between HP and ExpressVPN a year ago.
This free trial will be easily accessible to all LastPass Premium subscribers; users can find the free trial within their Security Dashboard.
To celebrate the partnership, ExpressVPN is giving away 10 LastPass Premium subscriptions as well, which will also come with the free trial.
Vice President of Product Management at LogMeIn, Dan DeMichele, commented on the partnership, saying,
“We chose ExpressVPN because of their security, reliability, speed, and ease-of-use, and they share our passion and commitment to help consumers protect their online lives.”
The new Partnership between ExpressVPN and LastPass seems to be a really great deal. And speaking of security and reliability, let’s discuss how both password managers and VPNs help users stay secure and how users can take advantage of both pieces of software.
The Benefits of Password Managers
Let’s start by talking about password managers. Keeping track of each and every password can be difficult, and this difficulty encourages users to use the same password for every account. This is wrong and will only help cybercriminals hack multiple accounts.
1. Easier to Create Strong Passwords
LastPass helps resolve this issue in two ways, the first way involving giving users access to a secure password generator. Most password managers come with password generators in order to encourage users to create strong passwords.
LastPass is no different. Their password generator allows users to control how long a password will be, if it includes numbers, special symbols, or vice versa, and if it is readable or if it’s a string of random letters and numbers.
Mileage varies depending on the password manager used, but all password generators are similar. However, keeping track of all of these long passwords can be troublesome. This is where the main feature of password managers comes in.
2. Easier to Organize Passwords
Password managers, also known as password lockers, store all of a user’s passwords in a locker, each password organized by what account it belongs to and the type of account associated with it.
For example, if a user were to store their Discover account on LastPass, LastPass would file the password (along with username) under the “Finance” category and label it as a Discover account. The same would be done for any future account.
This functionality removes the hassle of finding a password you wrote down a year ago or losing said password. Plus, most major password managers keep your passwords secure through encryption.
The Benefits of VPNs
While password managers allow users to make obvious improvements to their online security, virtual private networks (VPNs) are more subtle in what they give to users.
Let’s start with their major feature: encryption.
1.Enables the Encryption of Data
When data travels from a device to its destination and back, it’s unencrypted. Certain sites will protect data with HTTPs protocols, but the data is still vulnerable. This is especially true if someone were to use a public network, which is notorious for being hotbeds for hackers and other cybercriminals.
VPNs fix this problem by encrypting all data that travels to and from the device it is installed on. This way, all your online traffic will be secure and protected.
What’s more, when you connect to a VPN server location of your choice, the app will replace your IP address with one of another state or country. This adds another day of security and privacy to your browsing experience.
Additionally, some users make use of this feature to overcome geo restrictions. Once you are using a VPN server of another location, you can access content specific to the region freely.
2. Makes Security Accessible
While not an innate feature for all VPNs, most major VPNs are accessible and easy to use, allowing inexperienced users to get the most out of their online security. In the case of ExpressVPN, all a user needs to do is select what country they want to connect to and press the power button in the program. After that, no further input is needed from the user.
When people think of encryption, they think of sophisticated programs and software that can encrypt hard drives and entire devices. But encryption isn’t difficult and isn’t too complex for users. And VPNs help show that to people who may believe otherwise.
What this Partnership Means for the Industry
LastPass and ExpressVPN are leaders in the consumer security software industry. For both of them to partner with each other is monumental.
This partnership between LastPass and ExpressVPN highlights the need for enhanced cybersecurity for users around the world. While both password managers and VPNs have experienced rising popularity the past decade, many users still don’t take advantage of their features. This partnership may just change that.
Conclusion
It’ll be exciting to see what the two major cybersecurity service providers have in store for the future. This partnership will encourage users to try out new security software, help them become accustomed to using said software, and will open the doors for new partnerships. It’s an exciting time to be in the cybersecurity industry!