LastPass Business User Guide

A knowledge base article about LastPass Business User Guide provided by the UC Berkeley IT Service Hub - Knowledge Portal

LastPass Business is now available to UC Berkeley departments for storing institutional account information. LastPass Business accounts enable campus teams to share secrets, credentials, and keys, as well as sharing with other LastPass Business teams at UC Berkeley. Note: Business should not be used to store or share your personal CalNet credentials.

More information about what LastPass is, along with how and why it should be used, can be found at: https://www.lastpass.com/business-password-manager

Getting Started with LastPass Business

Your department will need to assign two or more LastPass Administrators to administer their Business instance. Below are a few requirements that departments need to be aware of before requesting a LastPass Business account. 

  • You must use your @berkeley.edu email to access LastPass Business. If you are using your @berkeley.edu email address in any other LastPass account of any kind, you must change the email address associated with your other LastPass account. 
  • Our LastPass Business version allows a user to be in only one Business account. If you are already in an Business account, there will be extra steps to move your account.
  • Duo MFA is required for all Business accounts; Duo Push, Duo Mobile passcodes, Security Keys (U2F or WebAuthn), or Touch ID are acceptable authentication methods. Phone callback, SMS, and simple hardware tokens are not supported.
  • ISO will set up LastPass Business account policies on Business accounts to allow certain account admins to reset master passwords for users in that account. ISO will configure local admins or superusers to be able/responsible for passphrase resets. 
  • ISO will retain access in each LastPass Business instance to assist with emergency passphrase resets.
  • ISO will configure policies in LastPass Business to forward event logs to ISO.
  • Your department or unit will determine who will administer the Business account. Administrators are usually technologists or IT help desk staff who are comfortable taking on the administrative role and understand the requirements and risks.

Once the above requirements are understood, a designated LastPass administrator for your department will need to request a LastPass Business account via the LastPass Business Request Form.

Activate your LastPass Business account

Install Browser Extensions and Mobile Apps

Users should prepare their browser to use LastPass Business by going to the LastPass Download webpage and downloading the appropriate plug-on or browser extension: https://lastpass.com/misc_download2.php

Activate Your Account

Departmental LastPass Business administrators will invite users to their instance. The email invitation will come from LastPass <do-not-reply-support@lastpass.com> and will include an activation code for users to activate their account and set their Master Password.

Activate LastPass Account Email Invitation

Click on the Activate LastPass button to start.  Users will be asked for their Activation code and to create a master password.

Set Your Master Password

For security purposes, the master password must be a strong, complex password.

  • At least 20 Characters
  • Password characters must be from all 4 of the following character sets:
    • numbers [0-9]
    • lowercase letters[a-z]
    • uppercase letters[A-Z]
    • special characters[!@#$,^ etc]
  • The passwords must be complex and not easily guessed or obtained.
  • Do not use simple words. e.g. "password," "welcome," or "hello"
  • Do not include three or more consecutive characters from your user name
  • Master Passwords must be reset every 365 days
    • If you reuse a Master Password elsewhere in LastPass, you will be required to reset it. Your Master Password cannot be reused elsewhere.

Set Up Duo MFA

After the Master Password is set, log in again and click the link to verify your Duo Security setup. You will be asked to provide your CalNet ID on the next screen, and complete a Duo Security challenge before being logged in to LastPass Business.

Set Up Duo MFA

Link Personal Account

ISO offers LastPass Business users the option to link a personal account to their Business account.  This is entirely voluntary and is not required.  When a user completes their first login, they will be prompted to set up a linked account.

Option to Link Personal Account

Additional information on Linked account

Both the linked personal account and the Business account are encrypted, with different encryption keys.  When linked, the Business account can view data within the personal account but not vice versa.  The linked personal account can be any “free” or “premium” account.  Free LastPass Premium accounts are available to anyone with a valid berkeley.edu email address thanks to Premium as a Perk.  LastPass cannot auto-create a “premium” account for any entity, since the end-user will always need to define the master password for encryption and access. 

Browser Extensions and Mobile Apps

If you have not yet done so, install Browser Extensions and mobile apps. Downloads for plug-ins or add-ons for other browsers and operating systems can be downloaded at the LastPass Download webpage https://lastpass.com/misc_download2.php

Set Up Recovery Options

It is extremely important that you set up recovery options for your account.  https://support.logmeininc.com/lastpass/help/how-do-i-set-up-all-account-recovery-options-for-lastpass details all recovery options.  At a minimum, we recommend using the LastPass browser extension. Signing in to LastPass using the extension regularly will ensure that your administrators can help you reset your Master Password, if you forget it.

Managing Sharing and Shared folders

In order to share credentials with team mates, you need to first create a shared folder, and then share the folder with your colleagues.

Create a LastPass Business shared folder - LastPass Support

About LastPass Business Shared Folders - LastPass Support

Add and Manage LastPass Business Groups - LastPass Support

A note about shared folders: Your department LastPass Admin will NOT automatically have access to your shared folders. In order to ensure that access to a shared folder is not lost when a user leaves campus, please consider adding your department Admin to your shared folders.

Training and Support

LastPass Video Tutorials

  • https://support.logmeininc.com/lastpass/video
  • These videos include Browser extensions, user training, Mobile Apps, Account Recovery information, Password Management, Sharing and Shared Folders, and a variety of Administrator tools.

Online Training

Support