Hacker News Reader

Comment by nwh | Hacker News Reader

Stop using one password for everything then. A manager like 1Password is almost an essential tool for the security conscious.

View on HN

I use wildcard email for my domain, and can easily take this a step further. I don't even use the same email for any two sites.

Since I was compromised, I finally went through all my passwords and made them all unique with 1Password. I've had the app for a while but I never did a security audit for myself and bothered to update passwords. Definitely one of those must-have apps/services.

are these services safe?

Don't know about 1Password, but LastPass encrypts all passwords client-side. Only marginally less safe than storing passwords in an encrypted file on your personal machine.

Or use KeePass. And you can store the KeePass database on DropBox.

I use KeePass. It's great. I looked at LastPass but I didn't like that it is "Browser Based". I know it is supposed to be working "offline" but somehow I felt safer using KeePass where I can use the programs own UI, make sure the exe doesn't "phone home" and where I can directly see the encrpted db file and do with that as I please.

At first I worried about what would happen should the db file get corrupted somehow. But then I set up the backup tools with which I can keep as many backups in as many places as I want, so unless the db file gets corrupted in all places, I think I will be fine.

I remember switching from KeePass over poor Linux support, but looking at its page now, it looks like it runs on Linux just fine.

I'll have to give it another look, I guess.

I can vouch for 1Password as well. Fantastic software, and they have numerous posts detailing their exact encryption techniques. Remember one really good password, and the rest of your passwords can all be completely random. You can sync it over wifi or Dropbox. I don't know the passwords to just about any websites now thanks to 1Password. We mandate it at our company now too. If you can tell me the password to "Important Website X" off the top of your head, you're doing it wrong.

<BTW: This goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway: Don't lose your 1 master password or your password database. ;) >

Reply on news.ycombinator.com