Keepassnetc2011

Editor's Notes

1. Welcome!Please feel free to interrupt at any time. The time to answer questions is when you have them, not after you’ve forgotten what didn’t make sense. This is supposed to be for your benefit. If we can answer your questions we’re at least moving in that direction.“I used to use one password for everything. I needed to change, so now I have like 5 and can't remember them." Sound familiar? If this is you, a password safe can help. We'll show you how to easily keep up with hundreds of passwords using the KeePass Password Safe.
2. An online survey of over 600 respondents showed that the vast majority of people either use the same password everywhere, or have a few passwords they use for all accounts. So what if you try to log in to a site you don’t use everyday and it fails? Most likely you’ll try the other few passwords to see if you used the wrong one. Guess what?...If we can explain, download, install, and demo this in 15 mins or less there is no reason you can’t avoid the same security mistake as the majority in this survey.
3. A “man-in-the-middle” or “impersonation” attack makes any browser and any computer vulnerable. Only your habits can protect you, and you are as vulnerable as your weakest, or most hurried moment.As if on cue, Citi released information that customer data was breached on 6/8/2011.
4. One password safe (for storing passwords, etc)is KeePass. This software is available at no cost from http://www.keepass.info. Donations are encouraged. This software supports the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES, Rijndael) and the Twofish algorithms to encrypt its password databases for strong security and encrypted passwords. There is even a "security level meter" to show how strong your passwords are. It also has a strong random password generator to make up passwords for you.KeePass is portable. It can be carried on a USB thumb drive, or other portable media, and will run on Windows systems without being installed. It can also run other devices and operating systems like Linux, Mac OS X, PocketPC, and Smartphone.Searchable. You can search your database of passwords for specific entries or fields. It is intuitive. It works similar to other Windows based applications. You access features like copy, past, sort just like you do in other Windows programs. It will clear the "clipboard" where copied items reside automatically to increase security.Exportable. The password database can be exported to various formats like TXT, HTML, CSV so that it can be referenced by you or used in or by other programs if necessary. The database is also easily moved in a single file to be used on another computer if you need to. The first thing you till need to do after you download and install KeePass is to create a new database for your passwords. From the KeePass program, you will click on File; New and you will see this page. This is where you will assign your MASTER password. Now you can put your “passphrase” generating skills to work. This password needs to be something you will remember and it needs to meet strong password rules too. To help you meet the strong password rules, there is an estimated quality meter. The farther to the right and greener the bar, the more secure (less guessable) and better the password is. Then you press <OK> and <OK> again at the next window to return to the program. YOU MUST REMEMBER you master password. Don't write it on a post-it and put it on your monitor! If you must write it down, put it on at least a $20. Your passwords are worth much more than that. Treat them as such.From this point, you can start adding your sites!  
5. Reminder about creating that master password for KeePass…You SHOULD use numbers, capital letters, and special characters throughout your phrase. As you can see from our example: "I was born in Dale County Hospital", many variants can easily be created. . Substituting numbers for vowels, symbols for letters and such, you can be as creative as you desire. The more creative you are and the longer the phrase used, the more secure your password is likely to be. It will be meaningless to others. Iwb1DCH! means nothing - to them. 
6. Adding entries to your password database is fairly simple and easy to get used to doing. You right click your mouse over the password entry windows and it will pull up this window. You enter all the information for the website here. You can give it a title, enter the username and password for the site, and the URL of the main webpage. You are also able to type in notes about the site. It is important to enter the correct username and password for each site. It is also best to be as descriptive as you can about the information and website in case you need to reference it later.Then press <OK> to go back to the main program.    
7. One of the nice features of the program is the ability to copy the credentials into the “clip board” and paste them directly into your username and password prompts. It will also open the web page URL’s for you directly from the program in your default browser. That is something else you won’t have to remember or manage!