In my day to day life, I use 5 different computers and 2 PDAs.
I know. It’s ridiculous.
Heck, I even make fun of myself.
I’m trying to figure out how to manage the passwords that I need in such a way as to ensure that they are always available, yet maintain the break between what is mine and what is work’s.
Let’s talk password management for complicated people — after the break
Here’s what I’ve got:
Processing Devices
- Home (OS X, WinXP, Ubuntu)
- Work 1 (WinXP – local admin, BB)
- Work 2 (WinXP – no priv, BB)
Authentication Credentials
- Home Internal – approx 5
- Home External – approx 10
- Personal Web2.0 – approx 20
- Other Family Related – approx 20
- Work 1 Internal – approx 4
- Work 1 External- approx 10
- Work 1 Web2.0 – approx 10
- Work 2 Internal – approx 10
- Work 2 External- approx 5
- Work 2 Web2.0 – approx 10
That’s about 104 pieces of authentication material. Some of it is mine, some of it is related to one of the two work places. And at any given point, I may need passwords from two or three of those lists simultaneously. And interestingly enough, there isn’t one solution that covers all of those potentials.
Looking at this from a user centric perspective, you’d rapidly begin to agree with Schneier — write em down and keep em with your wallet.
From a paranoid security wonk perspective, it’s time to start memorizing.
From a “goodness sakes, I need to get back to DOING my work” perspective, I need a solution.
There are tools available, even cross platform ones.
Except that none of the tools I’ve looked at support having a synchronized store that is protected in a meaningful way.
At this point, the best that I’ve managed is the one that is the most “sneaker-net”ish.
A TrueCrypt 5.1a volume stashed on a very small USB key on the same ring as my RSA SecurID fobs (I actually have the older SD600 type) that contains a plain text file for each authentication credential. I use Unison to manage the synchronization of the contents of the travelling TrueCrypt volume onto each of the stationary volumes.
What a pain in the proverbial.
So – how do the rest of you handle your authentication credentials? Where’s the brilliant answer?
Slap something in the comment field below and I’ll summarize for a later post.