You read about it everyday: a hacking breach, identity theft. No one is immune; JP Morgan, Home Depot, Target, celebrities’ secret revealing photos… In many cases, the breach is a pilfering of passwords or is facilitated through a “brute force” attack where simple passwords are easily cracked.
Passwords are a pain. Many of us use the same passwords for multiple resources. A simple, easy to remember, guessable combo; birthdays, kid’s names. We use the same authentication for benign sites like an ESPN or gossip site profiles as we do for more secure-like places; banking or other sites that house credit card / financial information.
My choice for password management is AgileBits’ 1Password. This app provides a central repository for access to logins, credit card info, secure notes, software license info, bank accounts, etc., synced across all my devices (iPhone, 2 iPads, laptop and desktop computers).
The app encrypts all data (AES 256-bit), auto-locks separate from general device access and allows for access via Touch ID (fingerprint) on iOS devices.
The app generates strong and unique passwords for any resources you want to keep secure. With initial authentication, desktop browser plugins allow secure passwords to be auto-filled. In the latest version of iOS’ “extension” capability allows 1Password driven Touch ID authentication to work in many other apps like mobile Safari, Dropbox, Uber and a growing list of others.
1Password is available for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android. There is both a free version and a “Pro” version for $9.99.
Relevant links:
Electronic Tenant Solutions Blog 