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Dear Mr. Internet,
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It seems like every time I want to do something online it
requires a password. Is there a good way to keep track of all the passwords
I use when on the Internet? |
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Suzie Mulvey
Long & Foster Realtors
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Dear Suzie,
First of all, congratulations for even being concerned about password
security. Most people don�t bother and often use the same password for
everything, typically something easy to remember (and guess) like the name of
their dog, date of birth, etc. Unfortunately, nefarious hackers know this which
makes most people tempting targets. This is because once they figure out that
one password, it becomes a �golden key� to just about everything that person
does online including giving potential access to financially sensitive
information especially if you do your banking or manage your stock portfolio
online.
The problem with using �good� passwords (i.e. not easily guessed or broken)
is they are hard to create, difficult to remember, and cumbersome to enter into
the appropriate online fields when required for access to online services.
Fortunately there is an easy way to address all these issues. It is called
Password Agent which is a nifty software utility that you can download right
from the Net by going to
http://www.moonsoftware.com/pwagent.asp.
Password Agent allows you to easily create, maintain, and use an unlimited
number of passwords (the free version lets you save up to 25 passwords, as of
this writing US$19.95 buys you unlimited use). This means you can create a
unique, hard to break password for every service that requires one. It also
stores the associated �user ID� (which can be any kind of word) as well, since
most services insist that you create a user name or ID and password. (see
screen shot below)
Password Agent lets you store quite a bit of information about each service
including the Web address and any other notes you want to save. This can be
found in the Properties section for each password entry. (see screen shot
below)
In addition, Password Agent has a very convenient random password generator
that allows you to create passwords of arbitrary length (I suggest a minimum of
8 - 10 characters) consisting of upper and lowercase letter, numbers and even
special characters (i.e. $%^@# etc.). This is a real timesaver and good
security feature since it�s as easy as clicking a button to create a new
password and they are never words found in any kind of dictionary, making it
very difficult for even the most determined hacker to break your passwords.
(see screen shot below)
Also, it is important to make sure your Password Agent password file is
safely backed up on a regular basis (it�s a small file with a .pwa extension),
otherwise you will spend a lot of frustrating hours resetting all the passwords
on the various services you use. In my case it would be a catastrophe to lose
this file since I have Password Agent storing nearly 300 user ID / password
pairs! Also, if you intend to use Password Agent on more than one computer, it
is this .pwa file that needs to be updated from one machine to the other so all
of your computers have the same list of stored passwords.
Password Agent requires you to use a �master� password to guard access to all
the other passwords in the database (which is saved in a highly encrypted form
on your hard drive). It is important that you use a difficult to guess yet
easily remembered password (for you anyway) to act as this master password.
Whatever you do, DON�T FORGET THE MASTER PASSWORD, otherwise you will never be
able to retrieve or access the other passwords being stored. By definition, this
master password becomes the only password you will ever have to remember for all
your online services. (See the Tip Of The Month below for how to create a
difficult to break master password that is easy only for you to remember.)
Lastly, Password Agent makes it a snap to automatically enter your ID and
password information into any website. Once installed, Password Agent sits in
your Task Tray / Manager on the right side of your Task Bar. After selecting the
password information you want to enter you just click your cursor in the UserName field and hit the special key combination (typically ctrl-shift-A) to
automatically enter both the user ID and password for the respective service. In
addition to being fast, it is also error free since you don�t have to manually
type the information into the fields. (see screen shot below)
I recommend setting the Password Agent options so that you don�t have to
reenter the master password every time you need to use it. Just remember to
�lock� Password Agent (i.e. make it inaccessible until the master password is
re-entered) if you should leave your computer on in a non-secure area.
The Internet continues to be a wonderful, extraordinary adventure �one
however from which we still need to exercise reasonable precautions to keep our
use of it safe and worry free. Password Agent is one of those very simple yet
powerful tools that help us do just that!
Article Resources
Password Agent - a very easy to use yet comprehensive password management
utility that helps you create, manage, and enter very secure passwords for all
your online services.
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