I consider myself a security paranoid. Every site I sign up with a different password even different username. Over the years hundreds of account accumulated on the internet. To help with remembering, I started with standard menonics, then use associations. Nowadays I am more lazy, using standard passwords for sites that I don’t really care about.
Still the problem is how to manage passwords overload?
Many years (5?) back I found a program call Gator, the concept is simple - a program that stay behind the scene and remembers all the password and pops up when it is needed. I was like godsend. I immediately installed it. Later I found that it is a spyware and I totally wipe it off. Since then I stayed off such program that comes form a commercial company.
To side-track a little. Spywares are really the most evil software. Basically they do just what the name imply - spying on the user. With people now going online without even knowing it (turn on the computer and the internet connection is on), the possibility for mayhem is endless.
Anyway, after years of staying off password remembering softwares, I ran across an opensource version called Password Safe. I was skyptical at first but since it is opensource, my guard lowered. Truth is I am going crazy remembering passwords and I really need a tool, any tool.
Check it out for yourself. Password Safe is really a simple program. The look and feel is not polished, the interface need a little use to. But overall it is very usable.
After using it for a while, I started to save more and more of the less frequent passwords into it. Still I will remember those important passwords, somehow I never trust leaving them on the computer even strongly encrypted.
What I like about Password Safe?
- Small, light, simple, does its job well
- Auto-type feature.
One click entry of username password and the enter key. Brilliant. - Password generation. No more thinking of password, just generate and save. The drawback of course is the program is always needed.
- Opensource, no spyware
Room for improvement
- Interface not as intuitive. Not sure what the icons does on first look. The tree navigation doesn’t look like the normal Windows folder tree which is what most user are used to
Where to get it?
http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/
Current version: 2.10
Function: Password management utility
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