1Password is indispensable
December 14, 2009
1Password is an absolutely indispensable tool. My family is currently in the process of moving, so we had to pack up all our paper work. I needed a way to securely store my account numbers, logins and serial numbers so that I would have access to that info during the move — I went searching for a tool. 1Password was by far the front runner in my search. It is the most polished of the apps I came across, it is super secure and they’ve just released a fresh 3.0 version.
1Password wouldn’t be of much use if you couldn’t access your info from any computer with zero configuration. Fortunately, they integrate perfectly with Dropbox, so setting up 1Password on all your computers to point to the same data is a cinch.
In the Getting Things Done ethos, 1Password will help you get your info out of your head and into a secure tool. You’ll never have to click an “I forgot my password” link again!
Exploding Pixels 
December 14, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Having worked in the security and identity management arena for most of the past fifteen years, I am of two minds on applications like this. On the one hand, it’s wretched security to write down passwords. On the other hand, nothing is completely secure, given time and CPU. On the third hand, human memory is fallible.
Personally, I like using SSH keys and SSL certificates instead of passwords, but you still have to remember the passphrase to unlock the key/certificate.
Good luck with the move! Surely you haven’t already found a house?!?
December 14, 2009 at 2:26 pm
As usual, replying to myself with second thoughts.
I have the same issues with keychain. Anything that stores a password is a bit suspect.
At my last job I was maintaining a campus Shibboleth implementation. Shibboleth is an Internet2 system that allows federated login. You attempt to access a web resource protected by Shibboleth and if you haven’t already logged in, you are redirected to a site at the resource’s institution requesting you to pick your authentication source. Having picked your own university, you are then redirected to the single sign-in for your university. If you haven’t yet had to authenticate there in the current browser session you are prompted to log in. Having done that, you are redirected back to the original site which, after some behind the scenes stuff, lets you in.
Pretty interesting stuff for middleware geeks like me, including use of SAML, SOAP, and much P2P SSL.
December 14, 2009 at 2:38 pm
Haven’t found a house, but our stuff is long since been packed off and put in storage somewhere.
-Ken
December 14, 2009 at 5:19 pm
This tool is awesome. It’s users don’t use the same lame password on every website they visit.
December 14, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Right! I should have mentioned too that 1Password will generate super secure passwords for you.
December 14, 2009 at 5:43 pm
PassPack is a great online password manager, and it’s free :-)
December 14, 2009 at 10:06 pm
Ken, thanks so much for sharing your review. I love reading about how 1Password makes our users’ lives more secure and more convenient.
Thanks again!
Jamie
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Jamie Phelps, Code Wrangler
Agile Web Solutions
http://agile.ws/support
January 5, 2010 at 11:05 pm
I use KeePassX with Dropbox. It’s multi platform that allows me to access my passwords on both Mac and Windows.