Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Picking an Ideal Password Manager

Filling out logins and passwords on many Web pages is a routine for anyone using the Internet. Most computer users have multiple accounts on various Web sites that require authorization. It is simply not possible for an average user to remember the many unique passwords used on different accounts, so a single password or its variations are used to protect accounts on various web resources.

Needless to say, using a single password or its variations on different resources is a bad idea. If just one of your passwords gets compromised, none of your accounts remain safe. But how would you memorize multiple unique, strong passwords? It's next to impossible memorizing all of them!

Password management features built into common Web browsers certainly help. However, browsers' password managers are neither safe nor secure. It is easy to break into these passwords if a malicious person has access to your computer, and it is easy to lose all recorded passwords if you clear form data or simply move to another computer.

If you want a secure password storage that you can keep with you wherever you go, and that you can use on any PC, you need a stand-alone password manager. There are many of those available, but which one of them would you trust your passwords?

In order to make the right decision, you have to research your priorities. A password manager must be able to store your passwords securely. The passwords must not be compromised even if spyware or malware gets physical access to your computer. The passwords must be portable, meaning that you have to be able to move them from one computer to another, or, better yet, carry them with you while travelling. Finally, it is important that you can access the passwords conveniently. Ideally, the password manager would fill the forms that require logging in automatically on your behalf.

Out of a great many password managers, only a few lived up to expectations. Automatic Password is one of them. Storing your passwords securely encrypted, Automatic Password protects them with a Master Password, not allowing anyone but you to access them. Your passwords are ready to travel with you on a flash memory card. You can literally save the program onto a flash card along with the password files, take it with you and plug it into any PC to get immediate access to password-protected accounts. Removing the memory card leaves no trace of the passwords you used on the guest PC.

Accessibility is a really strong point of Automatic Password. You literally don't have to touch a button to fill the login forms! Software detects password-protected resources that you visit, and fills in account information automatically. For even more convenient access, there is a small button on top of every window right next to the Close button to allow quick access to advanced features such as selecting a particular account credentials to be used for a login.

You may download a 30 days evaluation version of Automatic Password from official web site: www.automatic-password.com

3 comments:

Administrator said...

My favorite password manager is Logon Automator.

One feature that Logon Automator has that most password managers do not have is the ability to launch and login to multiple sites with just one mouse click. For most password managers, you have to manually open up a new instance of the browser (or a new browser tab) and tell the password manager to login for you.

With Logon Automator, all you have to do is click on the "Launch Selected Sites" button and it will fire up multiple instances of IE and log in automatically for you.

Check out their screen shots and see how easy it is to use this password manager.

Anonymous said...

I know a lot of people have problems remembering their passwords and even password managers require a pretty hard to crack password.

I like the idea of Picture Passwords and found

www.picturepin.co.uk

to be a useful tool.

Anonymous said...

Nice post, Karpolan.

Actually many people do have such problems and they don't even know how big is the risk of having lost the password. Especially if you use the same for all your accounts, hmmm... do I...?
It seems that you've found the solution :-)