Password Management

Alan — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:03:12 +0000

Yesterday it was reviled that the password for an administrative assistant’s email account at Twitter was compromised. As a result, secretive company documents were leaked to the web. Additionally, the CEO’s wife had her email account compromised and so was their personal Paypal account. You can read all of the details here. Compromises like this are certainly embarrassing and can happen to anyone from any company.

This brings me to my next point, not only should your password be strong but your hints to reset your password should not be easily guessed. If you have your hometown, birth date, and your mother’s maiden name on your Facebook page, an attacker is going to exploit this information for their benefit. You can never be too careful! Last week we posted a link to a great website that assesses password strength.

So now that you have super strong passwords (and super secret password hints!) how in the heck do you manage them all? We’ll tell you how!There are many different ways of keeping track of your passwords, including several different websites that will store them for you. You log in to your account and then enter your master password. You will then be able to view the passwords for various websites that you’ve stored.

Personally, I’m not a fan of this type of system and here’s why. First of all, what kind of security does the website implement? If the servers were compromised, how are the databases structured? Would an attacker be able to extract any valuable data from the databases? The most important issue, how are the backups created, and how are the stored? What kind of physical security do the backups have? If someone were to physically steal the backups, would your data be at risk? Personally, I’d rather not take a chance!

A program that I use is called KeePass. Now is KeePass suitable for controlling access and tracking password usage shared by a group of network administrators? No it isn’t. There’s better software out there if tracking and controlling is your goal. This software quite simply creates an encrypted database which contains your passwords. KeePass is incredibly easy to use, you can be setup and storing your passwords securely within minutes!

There are versions for Windows, Linux, iPhone, PlamOS, BlackBerry, Android, PocketPC, and thumb drives. They have a version for just about every platform out there except for Mac. Sorry Mac Fans! The best part about this software? It’s FREE. Yes that’s right, I said FREE. This is a great example of open source with an awesome community of developers with the goal of creating software that benefits everyone! I highly recommend that you give it a try today!

DOWNLOAD:

KeePass

Password Strength Checker

Alan — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:29:17 +0000

All of our customers and friends that know me well, know that I can get pretty crazy when it comes to password complexity. When it comes to safeguarding your data or content, you can never be too careful. One website that I absolutely love and use on a daily basis is The Password Meter. So what does this website have to offer, and why should you use it?

Quite simply, this website assesses the strength of a password string. By providing very easy to understand visual feedback, this website helps you break your old habits of creating weak passwords that can easily be cracked or possibly even guessed by an attacker. I highly recommend giving this website a test run, see how weak your passwords really are! When you’re done, use this website to create stronger ones!

Recommend Website:

The Password Meter

Falcon Worx » password security

Password Management

Password Strength Checker