Re:Ask HN: Personal password storage and usage
by robgough on Thursday June 07, 2012 @12:06PM
(#4079694)
I've been using 1Password for about six months now, and loving it. It can auto-generate passwords for you, so for most of my main sites now I actually don't know the password anymore.
The advantage of 1Password is that it runs on Mac/Windows/iPhone/iPad which are all the main platforms I use regularly, though this setup cost a little more than buying it just in one place.
A feature I quite like, and that made me feel somewhat more confident in trusting ALL my passwords to it - is that not only does it sync to dropbox, but you can visit the dropbox website and view a .html file to get web-based access to your passwords though a now-familiar UI.
(I'm just a happy customer, I don't work for them - and I've never tried a competitors products so this isn't a comparison)
Other tricks you can apply:
- Use a different password on every website. To help you remember it, you can choose one main password and make variations on it for every website (the variation is based on that website, but don't make it too obvious!)
- I can't tell my password for a specific website if someone points a gun at my head, since I don't know it. I need a QWERTY keyboard to enter my password, because I only remember the flow of the characters I type. I don't remember all the characters.