Password Managers

By Tom Kellen

A month or so ago I wrote about some tricks for making easy to remember, but hard to guess passwords.  The reality of today’s technical age is that we have to access WAAAY to many sites to easily remember passwords for if you are really using different passwords for different sites.

The best way to over come this obstacle is to use a “password management” program.  These programs remember your usernames and passwords for you.  They store the password in an encrypted file secured by, you guessed it, a password.  The great thing is that you really only need to remember the one password that secures the program since it is remembering all of your other passwords.


I have a couple of suggestions on programs that I use for password management.  My suggestions are if you use a PC, take a look at RoboForm, and if you are using a Mac, be sure to check out 1Password.  Both of these are excellent programs that I highly recommend.

Both programs have a similar set of features:

• Manage your passwords and Log In automatically.

• Fill long registration and checkout forms with one click.

• Encrypt your passwords to achieve complete security.

• Generate random passwords to maximize password strength.

• Fight Phishing by entering passwords only on matching web sites.

• Defeat Keyloggers by not using the keyboard to type passwords.

• Back up your passwords and copy them between computers.

Both programs will recognize what web site you are on and allow you to fill out login screens with a single click.  Both also do much more than just usernames and passwords.  You can set up identities and have them automatically fill in your address information and you can securely store credit card information and have the programs fill that info in for your on-line purchases.

Using either of these programs will have you breezing through the various sites for your projects in no time.  I’m sure that once you give them a try, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them.