With ransomware attacks on the rise—and compromised passwords to blame for some of the hackings—there’s no better time to review your personal security practices.

It all starts with how you create and store passwords.

You may have read a thing or two about password managers, perhaps in my previous column on the subject.

This software can create strong randomized passwords, then remember them for you, and they can auto-fill credentials, simplifying the login process. Having unique passwords is critical to your online security: Around 25% of security breaches in 2020 involved the use of stolen usernames and passwords, according to a Verizon report published in May.

In this column, I’m comparing the two main types: