Password Saving Sites

xxxdarlingxxx

Hi there

i had a Spyware scare this week and it's made me think about my passwords and how secure they are.

Are there any of the sites that "manage" your passwords that are exceptionally good ?

Any advice very welcome

Thanks

fwor

I personally would not recommend relying on a third party to look after your sensitive data. If you do that you have to worry about not only your own PC's security, but the path between you and their server, the security of their server, and their ability to hire trustworthy staff.

If you know how data centres operate, you might also worry about the contract staff who have complete control over their server at the data centre, but are not employed by them directly.

You may also find that placing passwords in the hands of a third party will violate the terms of use of some services such as online banking.

Far better IMO to concentrate on securing your own PC, and to use a local password manager such as KeePass or Password Safe. Both of these are Open Source, and the latter is endorsed by Bruce Schneier, who is a widely respected information security expert.

victor2

Write your passwords in a little book. Difficult for any malware to read that.

Storing anything online is only as strong as the weakest link, which at best will be your own computer and internet connection.

xxxdarlingxxx

Thank you fwor, this type of thing was what I had in mind, I saw it advertised somewhere.

victor, I guess only really need to worry about my bank & pay pal passwords, I can manage that just ! The notebook option is appealing simple

Many thanks

SteveJW

I would recommend the above, it gets good write ups.

I back up the encrypted database to a memory stick and then transfer that to my computer at work

At work the IT department have set up our computers so that you are forced to change your passwords at regular intervals, it is a nightmare.

Am I missing something, if I have a very secure password and I mean something like !£April19th1999$%YRK5&* why should I have to change it. The date is important to me, but is not an anniversary of any kind

In my humble opinion once it is written down it is insecure

knightstyle

make up passwords using the domain name with a few numbers in it so for this site, first word of name is money so "mon123ey" use this for all sites and no need to write passwords down and every site has a different password.

Mista_C

SteveJW wrote: »

I would recommend the above, it gets good write ups.

I back up the encrypted database to a memory stick and then transfer that to my computer at work

At work the IT department have set up our computers so that you are forced to change your passwords at regular intervals, it is a nightmare.

Am I missing something, if I have a very secure password and I mean something like !£April19th1999$%YRK5&* why should I have to change it. The date is important to me, but is not an anniversary of any kind

In my humble opinion once it is written down it is insecure

Because if you managed to get some kind of keylogging software on your system it wouldn't matter if your password was "password" or !£April19th1999$%YRK5&* and then some, once it's logged, it's logged. One of the old tricks my team used to use was to keep the same basic password and change the last two characters with the month. A password of M()n£y$4\/!n6£><9£r7.c()M01 would work it's way through to M()n£y$4\/!n6£><9£r7.c()M24 (our policy was you couldn't use the same password twice within any 24 months so 01 and 13 would be January, 12 and 24 would be December.

alanclarke

Lastpass - www.lastpass.com is an online password manager which is secure, all data is encrypted and they do not store your password on their servers so if the site is hacked unless the hacker has your password they cannot access your data. It integrates in most modern browsers and smart phones. Username and password are automatically filled in when you go to a stored web site. As password are stored online you can use it on any computer and if Lastpass is not installed you can go to web site, login and there are all your passwords. After Sony got hacked a few months ago I was not sure about the security of this until I listened to a podcast given by Steve Gibson, a respected security specialist and he raves about it, listen to it at www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4-h5gWpvAc

As you need a strong master password for Lastpass www.passwordmeter.com & http://howsecureismypassword.net/ will test the strength of any password.

fwor

Hmmm, Lastpass:

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-05-05/tech/last.pass.gahran_1_master-password-lastpass-online-security?_s=PM:TECH

It's not conclusive, but there was evidence of something untoward happening. I'd still prefer to keep everything under my own control...

Richie-from-the-Boro

If you don't trust you puter you cant trust the interwibble and cloud based storage, this is a good place to keep them, an old fashioned bobbies notebook £2:49 delivered or you can have this one for 86p .. .. no laggie band though

mart44

I use LastPass. I was a user during that period of uncertainty. I had no trouble but did change my master password as a precaution. I use LastPass for forum logins. It's very useful because it works across all installed browsers by just installing the LastPass extension.

I never have used it for passwords related to financial dealings though. I prefer to keep those on the computer in a password protected section of 'OneNote', a program that comes as part of Microsoft Office Home and Student.