1Password is an indispensable utility for your Mac that will change the way you think of password secuirty.
Overview
From our email passwords to our bank account logins, we are constantly being asked to generate and remember secure passwords to safeguard are online identity. It was not long ago that I too was jotting down my credit card login passwords on Post-it notes and sticking them to my monitor. If you're reading this and staring at the Post-it notes surrounding the screen of your Mac, then I have the perfect software application for you.
1Password is one of those Mac utilities that you never knew you needed. After using it, you'll wonder how you lived without it. At its core, 1Password is a password manager that stores all your login information in a secure database called the 1Password keychain. It keeps track of your username and passwords for various account types, your credit card and bank account numbers, and any secure notes you want to keep private.
Using 1Password
Once you download and install 1Password, you will be asked to enter a secure but memorable master password to unlock 1Password. The master password is needed to access the secure data kept in your 1Password keychain. For this reason, it is important to choose a secure password that you will always remember. The good news is the master password is the only password you need to remember.
After picking a master password, go to the preferences pane to install extensions for your Mac's web browsers. Extensions are available for most popular web browsers including Safari and Firefox. After installing the extensions, a small "1P" icon will appear in your browser toolbar. This icon allows you to autofill information for a particular website from the 1Password keychain. I find the easiest way to generate these entries is to visit a website and enter my login information. Doing so will prompt 1Password to ask if you want it to remember this information. Give the entry a memorable name and you're done. The next time you visit the website, click the "1P" icon and you are given the option to autofill with your login information.
In addition to storing your data, 1Password has a strong password generator that allows you to choose a password for new websites or replace an existing password. This is a useful feature for those wanting to replace the short, easily guessed passwords writen on Post-it notes. Since 1Password keeps track of the strong passwords for you, feel free to generate different long and safe passwords for each website. No more reusing the one, semi-secure password you can actually remember for all your online accounts.
Additional Information
If you're still not convinced, a free 30-day trial of the current version of 1Password (version 2) is available for download at their website. The current version of 1Password, which cost $39.95, is compatible with both Leopard and Snow Leopard. However, it only works with Safari on Snow Leopard in 32-bit mode. A beta version of 1Password 3 is also available for download at their website with native support for Snow Leopard. Purchasing a license of the current version of 1Password will get you a free upgrade to 1Password 3 when it is officially released. For details about compatibility issues of 1Password with Leopard and Snow Leopard, visit the 1Password blog.
For iPhone and Palm users, 1Password also has mobile versions for taking your information with you. If you're not an iPhone or Palm user, 1Password 3 will include a 1PasswordAnywhere feature to provide access to your information from any modern web browser on any operating system. The feature simply requires a copy of your 1Password keychain stored on a thumbdrive or a cloud storage solution like Dropbox and access to the Internet. Additional features of 1Password 3 can be found here.