Passwords & You

This day and age we have accumulated dozens of logins. You have personal ones such as Facebook, Twitter, even your banks require a login. You also have logins at your job; whether you are a work from homer or you commute to your workplace. Sometimes you wonder how can you keep track of all your logins and passwords. It's a tricky area. You don't want your logins in the wrong hands.

Back in the day, you really didn't need a login and password. The most sensitive thing you had was your Social Security Number and your bank card PIN. It was enough to memorize. Today there are way too many. If my grandmother was alive, she would probably tell you to write them down in a journal. How safe is a journal? How practical is having a journal with you everywhere you go so you can find your login? It is not. It is not very safe. You can lose the journal (major disaster there). It can burn up in a fire (safest way to lose your sensitive information). Or someone can steal it (this is just as bad as losing it). With new technology came software where you can store your logins. They are pretty handy. They also have risks too. The software is usually password protected. That's a benefit where no one can access it. However, you can forget your login to the software. That way your data is even protected from yourself. Your computer could have been hacked, received a Trojan or a virus. Hacking and Trojans are the worse of the three. There are keystroke Trojans that can get access to the software after you access it once. The same with the hacking. Virus usually just uses your computer to do its bidding, like sending out massive spam and replicating itself on other computers. Viruses requires you townie your drives clean. They also leave it vulnerable for hackers to get the information.

I have gotten so many passwords that I needed a program to help me memorize them. I do try to use the same everywhere, but each site has their own login password requirements. When I used a Windows mobile phone nearly 3 years ago(feels like 4 or more), I had this app called Password Keeper. Once I switched to my iPhone, I use this app called mSecure. I absolutely love this app. You can customize it and you can create passwords straight from the app. Password Keeper is also on iOS, but the app was poorly reviewed when I was looking. I love mSecure and I even got my mother to purchase the app. I actually shelled out $2.99 for the app. That was big for me because I never paid more than $0.99 for any app. The app now costs $9.99. I'm glad I purchased when I did.

Since I purchased, the app has been upgraded numerous times, adding new functionalities. In the beginning you could only back up app by emailing the back up. You got an email that looked like gibberish. Now you can update/sync with Dropbox. I do this because it allows me to access the same data from my iPhone and iPad. You can also Group and Tag by Type your passwords. You can customize and create your own Types. I really like this app. It's going to take me a while to get my job's passwords in it. You should see how many passwords are involved there. I just had to fight to get my password reset on a site. It took them 2 weeks to get it. If I just remembered my password or put it in mSecure, I wouldn't have been in such a bind.

Remember, your passwords are only safe as to the effort you put in it to keep it safe. Make sure whatever you use, you feel secure and it's easily accessible to you. We all wish we had the perfect photographic memory, but we don't. With the economy the way it is, crooks are getting more desperate in finding ways to access your data so they can steal your life. So please protect yourselves as much as possible.

Gallery of mSecure app pictures:

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