24 March 2012

What do you do with all your passwords?

With all the accounts I am a member of, remembering the various username and password iterations has become a little bit of a nightmare.

I'm now searching for an application that will look after this for me. I was prompted by an article I read on the Mashable website called Say Goodbye to Username and Password Logins and Hello to OneID. Here the developer describes his frustration of excess usernames and passwords so he came up with idea of OneID.

On the OneID website there is more information on how it works. As I understand it, once I've installed/signed into OneID I can develop my 'digital identity' to ensure an easier, more secure way to sign in or pay online. My worry is, while OneID says my digital identity is private and I'm the only one who can share this with whomever I like, OneID has this stored somewhere on the web. What I haven't been able to find is information on what is done with that data. There are reassuring words around only I can access and share my digital identity but ...

Another application, KeePass, is sounding more like it (at least for me):

KeePass is a free open source password manager, which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key file. So you only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish).  
And having a quick look on the features page I find I'm feeling more reassured. KeePass doesn't store registry or ini files on my system and is portable - I can store it on a USB! 

There appears to be many password management options:

Five best Password Managers from LifeHacker: 1) Sxipper; 2) KeePass (as discussed above); 3) RoboForm; 4) 1Password (Mac); 5) Firefox's Password Manager

Four Open Source Password Managers to Keep Your Passwords Safe by makeuseof: 1) KeePass - not really discussed as seen as most well known; 2) Clipperz; 3) Yadabyte Passwords; 4) Password Gorilla and 5) Universal Password Manager

Just a very quick round up of what's out there for keeping passwords safe. What do you use? How has it worked for you? Do you use an online or desktop based one? Would love hear your thoughts.



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