Useful, Free Tools to Manage Your Passwords

Passwords Are Sacred
You probably know I'm a RoboForm fan, to the extent that I'd give up a browser if it was incompatible with RoboForm. (It's officially known as RoboForm Pro Password Manager & Form Filler.) You can read about it and I encourage you to download the free version to try out the program, and eventually buy it. I can guarantee that once you get through the short learning curve, you'll rely on Roboform the way I do.

If you're not willing to shell out $30, you might want to try KeePass. It's free, open source, and has many of the functions that are built into RoboForm.

Password Cloaking
Here's something profound: "The more complex you make your passwords, the harder they are to crack… but the harder they are to remember." That's from the makers of CloakPass, a smart, free utility that handles the job of making your simple-to-remember password something extraordinarily difficult for a hacker to break.

Here's how it works: Head for a Web site that requires a login. Type an easy-to-remember password into the password field--say, stevebass--and hit Enter. CloakPass automatically transforms your simple password into a difficult-to-hack one. No matter when you visit the site, provided CloakPass is in your Systray, your simple stevebass password is transformed into Zf12#$6KYb8.

Once you get start using the program, you'll find it most useful on those sacred sites--banks, PayPal, eBay--anywhere where your concern level is high. For the rest, I still use RoboForm.

I tried the free version (get it here). The Standard version of CloakPass is $20 and the Pro version is $30; each provides extra features, such @#%* symbols. You might not find these extras necessary, unless, of course, you work for the FBI or NSA. Read the CloakPass Get Started page and FAQ to get a better idea how the program works.

You have a favorite password tool? Tell us about it below in Comments.

Comments

there is a simple and inexpensive alternative to memorising, writing downs lots of different PIN's and passwords or perhaps using online memory managers with inherent security concerns.

An application called mobivault (www.mobivault.net) can be easily downloaded to most mobile phones and smartphones.(£5 + text)
(text 80880 with keywords vault wap)

This allows you to store multiple PIN's and passwords safely encypted on yor phone and accessed by a master password chosen by the user. This means that there is only one password to remember and makes changing and using more complex and varied passwords a lot easier. Have used for over a year and has made the whole password management issue a lot easier.

hope this helps

Simonh

September 19, 2007

11:56 PM PT