I’ve posted this before on a different site but I felt it was important enough to mention again here. Below is the original post, with some minor editing.
Everyone, for the most part, uses the web for almost anything these days; online banking, email, online school, social networking, and so much more. Every time you use one of these services you are required to create a username and password. Over time, your accumulation of accounts can begin to stack up and keeping track of those accounts becomes a hassle. I’ve even noticed over the years that after all the sites I use consistently, the number of accounts has grown beyond control; last count was well over twenty unique accounts.
The most important part of creating these accounts we forget is security. Writing down the information on a piece of paper to keep next your computer is not secure. What we fail to realize is that information is easily available to everyone that visits your home. A password manager application is perfect for this type of information.
The function of a password manager is to store all of your accounts in a database and then secure the database by a master password so that you only have to remember that one password instead of many. Along with this advantage, it ensures that you don’t forget the password to an account, just in case you lose that piece of paper.
I personally use KeePass Password Safe that I originally found from the Portable Apps suite of applications. The advantage I found with this application, at first, was so that I could keep my secured password database with me everywhere I went on a USB thumb drive on my key chain. But then mobile applications came out on mobile devices, like the iPhone and Android phones, which allowed me to install the KeePass mobile version on my Andorid phone to keep with me at all times. I then use Wuala mobile application on my phone to sync my password database between all my devices (laptop, desktop, mobile phone, etc). This way I have all my passwords available to me always.
There are plenty of alternative password managers out there to choose from. To tell you the truth, any password manager with good security encryption is recommended to help you keep track, and secure, of all those accounts you use day to day.
