Friday, January 5, 2018

Password this and Password that. Tired of getting locked out and resetting passwords?

If you're like me then you have too many passwords to keep straight. These days we have passwords for various shopping sites, our banking websites, our email accounts and on it goes. Sure, some of those websites will allow you to save the password so you don't have to enter it each time but then.....one day it happens. Either the cache is cleared and the passwords are no longer available or we have device trouble which requires us to enter the password. Since we haven't been entering the password regularly it's likely that we'll have to go through the password reset procedures. That process could be repeated through the year many times among the various websites and becomes very frustrating.

We could use one password for everything but that leaves us vulnerable if the password is ever divulged. Some have resorted to writing passwords on sticky notes and pasted to the computer monitor (you know who you are) which is never a good idea. Well, there is a better way. There is a small program that can keep your account passwords secure and organized. It is called KeePass and can be downloaded at https://keepass.info/. Click the Download link on the left side, then click the large green button for your operating system. Once it's downloaded, double-click to begin the installation. It's a very simple application so it's fairly intuitive.

Once KeePass is installed you now have a secure location to store all of your passwords that can be easily retrieved when necessary. One thing I would recommend doing is backing up the file that contains your passwords. You can either store it on an external flash drive or transfer to cloud storage periodically.

Hopefully this will help you manage your passwords better in 2018 and beyond. As always, if you need assistance you can reach me via my website - www.georgephillipscomputerservices.com.