Digital security practices recommend use of complex passwords which are unique to each website or service because if you would use only one password everywhere and someone gets this password, you would have a problem; the thief would have access to all of your accounts.
There are various tools or methods to accomplish this. I am presenting one that’s been working well over the years for me.
Overview
The idea is to create an encrypted database to store your passwords. This database must be accessible from your personal laptop or your personal smart phone. To be accessible from anywhere it needs to reside on Google Drive, OneDrive or similar.
Steps
Create a directory on your laptop hard drive, call it $GDRIVE or something
Install Backup and Sync – add $GDRIVE under options as a folder that must be sync’d to Google Drive
Install KeePass on your laptop – this will help store all your passwords in one database, which is locked with a master key. So you only have to remember one single master key to unlock the whole database. Database files are encrypted using the best and most secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES-256, ChaCha20 and Twofish).
Start KeePass – create a new encrypted database, store it inside $GDRIVE directory on your laptop.
Choose a master key – use a long phrase or some nonsensical chorus to a song. For e.g. “Gadji beri bimba! clandridi, lauli lonni cadori gadjam…“. Ideally, you should include the punctuation as part of the key.
Use your imagination. You must not forget this at all otherwise you lose all your passwords forever.
You must not save or write this anywhere. This should be stored only inside your head.
Start storing your passwords using KeePass.
Accessing from smart phone
Install KeePass2Android on your phone, ask it to open a database. Select Google Drive as option and locate your database file. To access, your entries enter the long phrase/key. Once authenticated, set it to use fingerprint to unlock.
I’ve not tried it with iOS, but I hear KeePass Touch is an option, however, it doesn’t work Google Drive.
Conclusion
Even if someone was to break into your Google Drive and steal this database, they wouldn’t be able to decrypt it. There is no way to recover the database without the key. That’s one reason its considered secure.
Create an entry into this application whenever you register for a new website or service. Its a bit of a manual process, but very secure in the long run.
From here on, you may even choose to not store passwords when prompted by your browser.
Tags: Passwords Security