Josiah
Senior Member
- Location
- 50 miles east of Cincinnati, OH
I use a free piece of software called KeePass Password Safe. The KeePass file containing the passwords I store in Dropbox, a free online storage service.
Considering how many allegedly "safe" internet places get hacked all the time, I would never store my passwords online. Seems to me like leaving the proverbial fox to guard the henhouse.
That's my feeling also - I'd rather write them down in a ratty old notebook that I keep on the top shelf in my bedroom closet, behind the ...
... oops. Never mind.
I just don't think there is any totally safe place to keep things like passwords online online or even just in the hard drive of your own system. Every time somebody comes up with a safe place, there are 9 other guys trying to hack into it. I use the internet all the time for transactions, but I'm not going to give thieves a break by keeping my passwords there.
And, if you're keeping them on your hard drive in a program, if the hard drive gets fried, you've lost them. Easier to just do it the old fashioned way.
This is exactly what happened to me. My hard drive crashed. I didn't have a backup email account, so every account that required an email account to reset your password was history - no email - no reset. I had approx. 14 accounts (including an email account) with various login ID's, 13+ upper/lower/spec char passwords and nothing written down. I did have them duplicated on my HD but if no HD access, no pwd access. Lesson learned, I've never trusted any online backup system. When I was working in computer security we cautioned user's about writing down pwds, but without exception all my co-workers had them written down and carried a copy in their wallet. DO AS I SAY NOT AS I DO!And, if you're keeping them on your hard drive in a program, if the hard drive gets fried, you've lost them. Easier to just do it the old fashioned way.