MobileWitch Pass Safe: Password Manager Software by ...

by: Mobile Witch

MobileWitch-Pass-Safe-PC is a strong, innovative PC password manager (password keeper) software that also extends its utility over Pocket PCs or Smartphones providing highly encrypted passwords. Its purpose heavily assumed is to secure and store sensitive data and get that burden of large, delicate information off your shoulders. You can have all your user names, passwords, PIN codes, credit cards, calling cards, bank accounts directly on your mobile phone, stored in a safe, encrypted format and can be retrieved by entering a single password. The number of entries is unlimited.

The application ensures full strength configuration on your mobile device as on desktop. MobileWitch-Pass-Safe-PC employs the same database format and same key features as desktop version.

Software's built-in password generator allows you to instantaneously set up new passwords. Due to an extremely enjoyable interface and convenient search system browsing through and finding necessary secure data is as simple as it gets. All in all, MobileWitch-Pass-Safe-PC is one of the best password managers currently available on the Internet.

MobileWitch-Pass-Safe-PC has the ability to recognize your programs and sites, and saves you time and effort by offering to fill in the proper information for each one automatically. Prevent any vulnerability to your accounts. We have considered everything to best protect your confidential information and therefore we have included built-in protective measures such as the automatically clearing of the clipboard when you minimize it or exit.

The best thing about this software is that downloading and using it is FREE of any charges.

NO catch, No spwyware, No adware or other malware, just the real thing!

Mobile Witch
Product page URL: http://www.mobilewitch.com/pass-safe.php
Postal address: MobileWitch, Metro Atlanta Area, , 30324 Atlanta, USA

How to Choose Strong Passwords

Oracle 11G's Strong Verifier and Case Sensitive Password ...

by: Paul Fleming

As an Oracle DBA, you probably have heard a lot about the new security features in Oracle 11G such as database vault, audit vault, strong verifier, enhanced ASO, etc. But with a busy schedule, how do you find the time to study all the topics in depth? Are all of them going to affect your daily DBA operations? What should you know first and foremost? Of course, depending on the particular database you are administering, you will have your unique need. But as a rule of thumb, what tends to affect you the most is almost never those cool new features. The reason is simple: if you don't use them, they won't affect you. What tends to affect you is the change in the existing features that might lead to compatibility or interoperability issues. When that script you have used for years suddenly stops working, you will be disappointed. When your boss or above calls to ask what happened, you could feel terrible.

In this article, we discuss the new password case sensitivity feature in 11G. Every Oracle session starts with authentication. If the authentication fails at the beginning of your script, everything that follows will almost certainly be broken. So what was changed, why, and what should you know?

A Primer on Verifier

I'll start with a primer on password verifier. As you probably know, for security reasons, Oracle user's passwords are never stored as clear text. Instead, they are stored as a "verifier", a one-way hash value calculated from the clear text password. Hash verifier has a few unique features. One, it is "one-way": It is easy to calculate the hash value from a clear text password, but it is nearly impossible to figure out the clear text password from a hash value. Two, different clear texts almost never yield the same hash value (called collision). These features allow Oracle database to store the hash value of a user's password as a surrogate for the clear text password. When a user provides a password to logon, Oracle calculates the hash value from that password, and allows the user to logon if it matches the hash value that is stored in the database. To get a feel what an Oracle verifier looks like, take a look at the PASSWORD column in the user$ table in SYS schema (of course, you will need SYSDBA privilege to do that).

SELECT NAME,PASSWORD FROM SYS.USER$ ORDER BY NAME;

What Was Changed

Prior to 11G, Oracle passwords were case insensitive. "foobar", "FOOBAR", and "FoOBaR" are identical when used as an Oracle password. They yield the same hash value. If a user could log in with password "foobar", he could log in with "FOOBAR" as well. In 11G, however, when you create or modify user accounts, by default passwords are case sensitive. 11G also introduces a "salt" in the hash value generation so that even two users have identical passwords, their verifiers would still be different.

Oracle allows to you to control password case sensitivity for backward compatibility by setting the SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON initialization parameter. Only users who have the ALTER SYSTEM privilege can set the SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON parameter. Set it to TRUE to enable case sensitivity or FALSE to disable case sensitivity.

ALTER SYSTEM SET SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON = TRUE | FALSE;

How Case Sensitivity Affects Password Files

As you may remember, Oracle stores the passwords (again in the form of verifiers) of users with SYSDBA and SYSOPER privileges in a "password file" on the server, rather than in the database. You can enable or disable case sensitivity for password files by using the ignorecase argument in the ORAPWD command line utility. The default value for ignorecase is n (no), which enforces case sensitivity.

Here is an example of how to enable password case sensitivity for SYSDBA and SYSOPER users

orapwd file=orapw entries=100 ignorecase=n
Enter password for SYS: password

This creates a password file called orapwd. Since ignorecase is set to n (no), the password entered for the password parameter will be case sensitive. Afterwards, if you connect using this password, it succeeds(as long as you enter the password using the exact same characters with the exact same case as created). If you enter the same password with different case, it will fail
If you, the DBA, sets the system to ignorecase to y, then the passwords in the password file are case insensitive, and this means that you can enter the password using any capitalization that you want.

It is important to note that given the way it is controlled, within one Oracle system, the password's case sensitivity of a regular user and a SYSDBA/SYSOPER user can be independent.

How Password Case Sensitivity Affects Import and Upgrade

What happens when you export some users from a previous database where the password is case insensitive into 11G? The case-insensitive passwords in these accounts remain case insensitive, even if the 11G system has turned on password case sensitivity. This makes sense because otherwise old users may not be able to log on from a previously working script or client program. This, however, will change when the user changes his or her password.

You can find users who have case sensitive or case insensitive passwords by querying the DBA_USERS view. The PASSWORD_VERSIONS column in this view indicates the release in which the password was created. For example:

SELECT USERNAME, PASSWORD_VERSIONS FROM DBA_USERS;

USERNAME PASSWORD_VERSIONS
------------------------------ -----------------
JONES 10G 11G
ADAMS 10G 11G
CLARK 10G 11G
PRESTON 11G
BLAKE 10G

The passwords for accounts jones, adams, and clark were originally created in Release 10g and then reset in Release 11g. Their passwords, assuming case sensitivity has been enabled, are now case sensitive, as is the password for preston. However, the account for blake is still using the Release 10g standard, so it is case insensitive. Once he changes his password, it will become case sensitive and more secure.

Conclusion

Users' passwords in Oracle 11G database become case sensitive by default. Regular user and SYSDBA/SYSOPER user's password case sensitivity can be controlled independently. If you have a script with inconsistent password cases, the script may stop working with 11G even though it works fine with previous releases. To learn more about this topic, read "Security Guide" (Oracle Part Number B28531-03).

Peter Dwyer is an internationally known System and Database Architect for Oracle environments. He is founding principal of The Certainty Group (http://www.certaintygroup.com), a Boston-based Oracle database consultation company specializing in quickly assessing and correcting complex problems in multi-vendor, mission-critical systems that demand high performance and reliability.

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Password Manager - 7 Features to Look For

A password manager is a tool that allows you to store your login information in an encrypted format and retrieve it as needed. To prevent hackers from accessing your private information, most password managers require a "Master Password" to be used the "key" to perform encryption and decryption of you data. All you have to remember is that Master Password and the password manager will remember all your other passwords for you.
Most online users are not aware that such a tool exists. But once you start using it, you will never want to go back to the old way of entering your user name and password. It simplifies your life so much that you wish you would have known about it sooner.
Listed below are 7 features that you should expect from a password manager:
Encryption
The password manager should use some sort of encryption algorithm to encrypt your logon information. Some examples of encryption algorithms are: DES (Data Encryption Standard), Blowfish, AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), Rijndael, etc. Do not use a password manager that stores your password and user name in clear text (unencrypted). Anyone can copy your user name and password if they are stored in a clear text file. When your data file is encrypted, it will be rendered useless even if a hacker gets a hold of it. The text will look like a bunch of gibberish characters and the hacker won't be able to do anything with it unless if he has your master password.

Ease of Use
You should be able to save and retrieve your password and user name with a click of the mouse. Most password managers are implemented as a toolbar on your browser so that you do not have to go hunt for them in your Programs folder. When you are at the logon page, all you should need to do is to type in the user name, password, and click on "Save Password" button on the toolbar of your browser. The password manager should remember the URL (web address) of the site, your user name, password, and any other options that you have selected on the page. You should be able to rename the entry as needed (for example, Hotmail, CitiBank, PayPal, etc).
When you need to visit the site, you can just select the entry from the toolbar and the password manager should automatically log you in. Avoid password managers that require you to drag and drop user name and password fields to the page because the password manager is not intelligent enough to figure out what fields go where on the page. That is extra work for you and you know that there are better password managers out there that would automate the "drag and drop" action for you (RoboForm is one of them).
Portability
The user names and passwords that you save into your password manager should be "portable", meaning you should be able to export the list from one computer and import it from another computer. That way you are not tied down to just one computer when using your password manager. Having the ability to export your password list also enables you to make a copy of it and store it in a location other than your computer's hard drive (i.e. your pen drive, external hard drive, memory flash card, iPod, etc). Just in case your whole computer is stolen or damaged in a fire, you still have your password list.
Compatibility with Your Browser
Not all password managers are compatible with the browser that you are using. Most password managers are compatible with Internet Explorer. If you are using FireFox or Opera browser, make sure that your password manager is compatible with it.
Built-in Password Generator
Your password manager should have a built-in password generator that generates difficult-to-guess passwords for you. This will avoid hackers from breaking into your account using words extracted from a dictionary.
Ability to Modify Password
When the webmaster of the site changes the logon fields on the logon page, your password manager will stop working because the URL (web address) of the site might have changed or the logon fields might have been renamed. When that happens, your password manager should allow you to refresh your logon settings so that the latest changes are saved to your password manager.

Built-in Form Filler
Although not a required feature, it will be a bonus if your password manager provides a form filler. A form filler allows you to fill out online forms (like payment form, address form, personal information form) with preset data with a mouse-click. You just have to type in your personal information (like name, address, credit card number, etc) once and the form filler will fill out all the fields for you with a click of the mouse.
Our Recommendation: RoboForm
We have tested various password managers, both paid ones (like RoboForm, My Password Manager and Password Manager XP) and free ones (like KeePass Password Safe).
We like RoboForm the most because it has all the features mentioned above plus more. It has a lot of intelligence built into it and it does a fantastic job in grabbing the correct user name and password fields from various logon pages. and we are able to log on to different sites with the fewest clicks. Its form filler is so smart that it can handle any form that you throw at it while other password managers fail miserably. You can download the free trial version of RoboForm by click on the link below. You will be amazed by what it can do for you.

RoboForm can be downloaded from Ivertech Software Central We provide free service to developers to submit and promote software and public users to search, purchase, and review software.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com
We share articles about password management, password management software and passwordmanager reviews

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We share articles about password management, password management review, free password manager

Password Manager Review - No More Lost or Forgotten Passwords!

Every day Internet users have to create and enter to multiple web accounts. It's OK if you have to remember two or three different passwords, but what if you have to remember 10 or more. This can be a great problem because you may even forget which password belongs to which account. And as the number of used passwords grows over time, so does user confusion.

However, you can avoid most, if not all, of the password related problems by using a simple password manager - the program which helps you keep and effectively manage all your Internet passwords. This password manager review is intended to help you choose the best piece of password software out of the many solutions which are currently on the market.

In this review, I am not going to describe each and every program out there, but rather give you a hint on what kind of functionality a good password manager should have. Let's start with solving particular password related problems.

Number one is forgotten password. It's a real catastrophe when you can't enter to your account because you simply aren't able to remember the word! So how does a password manager help you solve this problem? A good password manager saves your passwords to a database. So whenever you need to enter to an account, it automatically fills in the login and password fields. It's a great way to avoid having to remember passwords.

You may argue that any modern browser can do that too. Yes, it can, but if you allow your browser to remember you password, technically you allow anyone who has access to your machine to enter to your account without your permission. Unlike a browser, password manger saves your data to a secure database protected with your master password. Once you've finished your work, you lock the database, and you can leave your browser open. Nobody will be able to access your accounts anyway.

Another useful feature is the ability to create strong passwords. Man-made passwords have a major flaw of being weak and easy to crack because human language has a high level of predictability. On the contrary, machine-made passwords are much stronger because they consist of a random combination of letters and digits thus being harder to crack. So it is a must-have feature for any good password manager.

Still another feature that a good password manager should have is structuralized password storage. It is good if your passwords are grouped into categories such as passwords for email accounts, passwords for online shopping accounts etc. This provides the quickest way to access your accounts on the web, and you always know where to find each particular password.

Now imagine you go to an Internet café or to a friend's house where you don't have access to your password storage database. In this case a good password manager allows storing your password database on an email server from which you can download it and use on any computer.

Here is a review of the password manager that can fulfill all of the above mentioned functions and even more.

Alexander Golishev is a copywriter for Novosoft LLC software developer, who writes about information technologies.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Password Managers : Why You Need Them - Keepass

Password Manager Reviews Help You Pick The Best Program!

If you are like most people, you have many different usernames and passwords to remember. This can become a burden, especially if you tend to forget your information! Typing in different variations for ten or twenty minutes only to be forced to reset your password, is unfortunately a common occurrence for many computer users. Also, there is another downfall of this method as well - it forces you to keep your passwords similar. As you can only remember a limited number of password variations manually, you'll likely be using the same three or four simple variations for every login. This represents a large security threat, because if a thief is able to steal your password from just one location, they stand a good chance of compromising all of your logins! A better option is to use a quality password manager program instead, which will keep track of your sensitive information automatically. To help you discover the benefits which these provide, and why reading reviews to locate the best choice is important, we'll examine this topic in more detail below.

Today it seems like every place which you visit online requires a login and password, and these can add up quickly. Average users often have twenty or even thirty different sites which they've joined, and remembering your password for each one can be daunting. That is why password managers have been developed, to store your login information in one convenient and centralized location.

How does it work? These programs must be accessed using a master password, which then allows you to enter. Premium versions often will enter you login details automatically, which is a huge time-saving bonus! Also, better designed programs know when they are needed, and come up without any command from you. For example, when you want to do your banking online, when you visit the site, the password manager will know that a login is required. The program will prompt you for the master password, and if you input it successfully, then it will fill in the username and password boxes on the site for you. This makes it easy to login on multiple sites quickly.

Further, it provides added security as well. How so? The best password managers on the market today, have built in security features. These include password suggestions, for high resiliency to hacker attacks. These will incorporate many different characters, numbers and letters to provide the greatest protection against being compromised by an unauthorized party. You could never feasibly do this on your own, as it would be impossible to remember 20 unique passwords of this complexity. Yet, a password manager opens up this option, keeping your sensitive data more secure.

Why can't you simply rely on your browser to store your login information? While superior browsers like Firefox offer this feature, it is spotty at best. If you clear your browsing history, you can inadvertently delete this information as well. This means you'll have to manually input your data again, which defeats the entire point of having this option in the first place! In contrast, password manager programs can't be cleared in this fashion, so you will never lose your information in this way.

What type should you select? Not only are there many different versions available, there are several different types as well. You can select a desktop program, which you install onto your local computer. This means if your computer is ever corrupted and your hard drive data is lost, you will have to manually input your information all over again. However, some users feel more secure with this type of software, as they don't want their login details to be stored offsite.

In contrast, online password managers store your information on a secure server, which is much less likely to crash. This means even if your local laptop or desktop computer fails, you can still access your password manager from any computer with an internet connection. This is what is known as redundancy, providing you with an automatic backup. Yet, some users are uncomfortable storing their personal password information on a third-party server, as they are afraid it could be compromised.

These options highlight the importance of reading quality password manager reviews, so you can determine the best one for your needs. Without this type of research, you may be unhappy with your results in the end. Also, you must choose either a free or paid program as well, and there are unique benefits to each. Most people agree that paid versions are more powerful and laden with useful features, though you will have to pay for the privilege. However, securing your passwords is an important task, and saving money shouldn't be your primary consideration. After all, just think of how much money you stand to lose, if even one of your login accounts was hacked into!

Reading good password manager reviews will give you insight into how specific programs perform in real world conditions. Gathering data from actually users is the fastest way to locate a product which you are likely to be pleased with. Also, you will save yourself time and frustration. How so? As stated above, many password managers have an upfront cost to procure. If you buy one without researching it first, the odds you'll be happy with it are slim! It is better to spend a little time reading up on your available options, so you can locate the perfect program for your specific needs.

Once you do, surfing online will be faster and more convenient than ever before. You'll no longer have to spend long minutes trying to input the right combination on a login screen. Instead, your information will automatically appear, after you type in your master password. Now you'll only have to remember a single password, which is easy for nearly anyone to do! Further, your security will be enhanced, as the best password managers will have highly resilient suggestions. These will be much more difficult to crack, and you will also have a unique combination for each and every site. Gone will be your reliance upon two or three password variations, which is a dangerous method to use. After all, cyber crime is on the rise, and you need to take every preventative measure that you can! So, why not look over a few reviews today, and then pick out the best program to protect your sensitive data?

Looking for a password manager that fits your needs? Read up on in-depth reviews at Password Manager Reviews [http://www.passwordmanagerreviews.net].

Article Source: EzineArticles.com We share articles and information about free password manager, password management, password management software and password manager reviews

Lenovo Hardware Password Manager

A Secure And Easy Password Management Strategy

The Problem Of Managing Passwords

A lot of people will often make use of the same password for most of the websites which they use daily. This is often rather dangerous because a hacker could certainly access each one of your services and personal information the moment only ONE of the websites you use everyday is breached. This definitely does actually occur, and not simply to unknown web-sites, large websites such as Sony, LinkedIn and Last.fm were hacked before and lots of its members login details were obtained and revealed to the entire internet on hacker sites! Contemplate the outcome if your e-mail account was hacked. This could quite easily occur when you utilize the identical password or a fairly easy variation of one password for all of your web services.

However all of us are only just people, and memorizing very long, unique and strong strings of characters for each service we utilize just is not manageable. Exactly how do we cope with this problem? Well, in this article I will present to you the conclusion of my long research and the solution.

Password Generators and Password Managers

Password generators are services which create strong, one of a kind passwords for you. Secure passwords normally consist of a length of at the very least twelve characters, contain uppercase and lower-case letters, numbers as well as special characters for instance ^ and ~. Strong passwords should not have any human readable words which you can find in dictionaries. Utilizing good and different login credentials for every one of your applications and online sites is extremely important simply because it decreases the danger of getting hacked. The bigger and more advanced your credential is, the more protective it is to make use of on online sites.

Password Managers are services which normally store all of your access credentials in a protected file. This file can only be accessed by your "Master Password". The problem with Password Managers is that they are subjected to the same security concerns as normal websites, because they store users' "Master Passwords". If the website is compromised and all of the "Master Passwords" are breached, users could lose ALL of their login details for all of their websites!

Using Password Generators And Managers

I have devoted quite a lot of my energy doing investigation for a solution to this access credentials handling problem, sadly the only thing you often come across on the web is Random Password Generators and Password Managers like articulated above. Most users sadly do not even worry about Password Management and just use the same password for all of their services and programs. As outlined above, this practice is extremely dangerous. Users which tend to be a little more security conscious often use one of the available Password Managers or Password Vaults which protect all the passwords in an encrypted file which is unlocked with a "Master Password". But as outlined above, if the "Master Password" should be compromised, all access would be compromised.

Conclusion

A better solution to managing passwords would be to use completely unique, extremely strong passwords for every service. And as an added layer of security, not to store any of this information anywhere. Following this approach means that if one service should be compromised, the rest would not be accessible with the same password. It would also be impossible to derive the passwords for other services from the compromised password. And not storing any information or passwords anywhere, the security enhancement of this is self explanatory. This might strike you as impossible, but it is not. I use a service which offers exactly this, you can access it in my Author Resource Box below.

Craftword Website: Password Manager

Android Version: Android Password Manager

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Are Web-based Password Managers Safe - AT&T ThreatTraq: Episode 103 (Part 1 of 5)

How Password Management Software Can Help You Keep Your Passwords and Accounts Safe

With the many attainments in technology, hacking is no more a difficult job, especially when passwords are in a vulnerable state. Fortunately, password managers are introduced to provide security to accounts. These password management applications are nothing but programs that function to manage and secure your various logins and passwords.

These tools enable you to store passwords securely in a particular location to ensure that they are recalled with just a few clicks. Aside from that they are free, encrypted, secured and easy to use. The best part about them is that they can be sync across numerous devices. Thus, having them installed will ensure that you never lose your password even if you lose your operating device.

Why Consider Using Password Management Software?

Recent studies proved that most users make two common mistakes. First, they use simple passwords and second they create similar passwords for multiple accounts. In case one account is hacked the others too become vulnerable. This is the reason why considering using these password managers can help you keep your accounts safe and secured. Also, they can be integrated with web browser to handle tasks such as secure navigation and automatic login input.

Password Management Software: Key Features

These software programs come with innumerable features allowing you to keep your logins and passwords safe and secured. They are;

• Flexible Access: They can be accessed from anywhere. Whether you are at your home, office or travelling, these password managers can be accessed easily.

• Synchronize across Various Platforms: Be it your Windows or Android phone, personal computer or laptop, they can be synchronized across all these platforms.

• Easy to Use: While using these managers you just have to remember one password and that's it. Generally, these kinds of software encrypt your data needing one master password for accessing the others.

• Unlimited Storage: One of the most significant features of these managers is that they offer unlimited password storage facility. Aside from giving details about the login and password of your account, they also supply additional information.

• Easy to Search Interface: As they allow full-text search, you can find information quickly. All you need to do is put in related data in text box and press enter and you will receive the information immediately.

• Record Different Types of Passwords: Not only they record generic passwords, but also store e-mail account passwords, software registration codes so on and so forth.

• Generate Multiple Passwords: These managers create some random passwords depending on the requirements of the users ensuring that they are hard to crack.

• Data Safety Safeguards: They ensure that the information stored is fully protected. They encrypt the master password by SHA algorithm, which is irreversible and has the highest encryption strength in the world.

Looking for a password management software to secure all your login credentials? To install password manager programs, look into our online store.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com We share articles about password management software, password management, and password management reviews.

Password Management for Beginners

We share articles about password management, password management software and password manager reviews

USB Password Manager - Keep All Your Passwords on USB Drive!

My mind is not a good storage of important information and so I have a real problem remembering dates, people's names, shop names and even my own Internet logins and passwords. However, I found a perfect solution to the problem - USB password manager. This program allows me to totally free my mind of the necessity to remember such information as city zip codes, telephone numbers, credit card details, and even my own logins and passwords.

When you surf the web, you often have to fill in forms for opening web accounts, buying products, registering at forums and blogs. So you can end up having hundreds of logins and passwords, which are hard to remember. For me, as a web writer, it turned into a real problem since I have to register at hundreds of websites, forums and social networks.

It used to be a total disaster, but then I found a perfect solution - USB password manager. It simply records all your account information to a database when you type it on the web. So the next time you visit a particular website, where you need to fill in a form or submit login and password, the password manager does the job for you automatically. The huge advantage of this software is that I can keep it on my USB flash drive together with the personal information database, so whenever I need to travel or simply go to an Internet café - all I have to do is connect my USB flash drive to the computer and my web surfing becomes much simpler.

Talking about other functions of the USB password manager, it is worth mentioning that it is a very user friendly piece of software. The personal information database is created automatically after the installation of the program to a USB flash drive, and the password manager toolbar is added to your browser toolbar. The password manager toolbar is a perfect add-on to either Mozilla Firefox or Internet Explorer browser with such features as Google search bar, Fill form button, and the Autosubmit function. It also provides immediate access to popular websites such as Yahoo, Amazon.com etc.

Another useful functionality of the USB password manager is the ability to create strong passwords which consist of a random combination of letters and digits and can never be cracked. You can even specify the password parameters such as how long, how complicated, use upper or lower case or both. Machine passwords are more sustainable to hacking attempts than human-made password. The mere length of a machine-made password makes it more secure, and security is vitally important if you publish your personal information on the web.

To continue the list of USB password manager benefits, I should say that the amount of typing that you don't have to do, if you choose to use it, is really impressive. If I had to manually type all those extended forms which I now fill in with just one or two mouse clicks, thanks to the password manager, it would take me years to do the job which I now manage to do in just seconds! And, since you don't have to type anything, no keylogger or other malicious software will be able to compromise your passwords.

I recommend using USB password manager to all of you!

Alexander Golishev is a copywriter for Novosoft LLC, software developer, with a great deal of expertise in data backup and recovery matters.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

LastPass Is The Password Manager That Hackers Hate

Multi-User Password Manager

Multi-user password manager is a lubricant for your business effective administrations which allows easy access to corporate accounts with all the account passwords stored in a secure multi-user password database. This is the most effective way of password management in an organization which allows your company employees to login to corporate accounts much faster with almost no effort. The multi-user password manager has the following functionalities.

o Multi-user password database

o Access to all corporate accounts with one password

o Access to the password database with administrator rights

o Access to the password database with the user rights

o Automatic account login without knowing account password

o No need to type logins and passwords

o No need to remember passwords

This allows you to implement the most effective password management strategy within your corporate infrastructure while preserving maximum security of your accounts.

How it works

The administrator creates a password database which stores information about all corporate accounts including logins and passwords. Now the administrator can create multi-user account which allows multiple users to access the password database. To enable your employees to access all corporate accounts without having to remember and type passwords, slip them the multi-user password and see how much quicker your business will run!

With the multi-user password, your employees will be able to access corporate accounts without knowing account passwords because the program logs them into accounts automatically without having to type passwords and logins.

With one multi-user password, you don't have to change each of your account passwords every so often to stay secure. You just have to change one multi-user password which grants access to the password database. Thus you attain a multi-level protection for all your corporate accounts. This means that each account is protected with its own password, plus the account database is itself password protected.

So what advantages does multi-user password manager bring to your company?

1) Instant access to company accounts for all employees

2) No information leaks (only the administrator knows account passwords)

3) Automatic access to newly added accounts by all employees (no need to send emails)

4) No employee complaints such as 'I forgot my password'

Find more information on multi-user password manager

Alexander Golishev is a copywriter for Novosoft LLC, software developer.

Article Source: EzineArticles.com

Dashlane Password Manager - Simple, Affordable and Reliable

Password Managing Software. How to Save Time and Effort ...

by: Edwin Jones

Password Managers are software that store passwords for you on your computer. Password Managers are essential due to the amount of confidential information each individual has.

Software

Password Manager Software stores passwords, user ids, activation codes and more. All the passwords are in one place, stored safely and securely. Good password managers use encryption algorithms certified by the US Department of Defence. All you have to remember is a single password for the Password Manager Software.

Password management software can make your life a lot easier and save time. Also the best Password Managing Software offer incredibly convenient form completion. No more laborious filling in of your personal information and card details.

Information

Password Managers are dedicated software programs that secure your passwords and other data, yet give you an easily accessible repository for the information when you need it. The program monitors your Web surfing and offers to save any name and password information you enter at a site. Like your passwords, this information is encrypted and accessible from a master password, which is cached in memory so you need enter it only once per session.

With multitudes of websites with your login information and subscriptions, Password Managers takes the drudgery out of filling forms and logging in. There are many Password Manager Programs available. Many are free to try and free for a small number of saved logins. Cost for unlimited use is small, often less than $30. Check out a Review Site such as that mentioned at the end of this article to see details of the best Programs

Conclusion

Password managers are a huge help in dealing with our exponentially growing numbers of accounts. Password Managers are the new essential for any Internet user. On the other hand the basic browser form fillers and login savers are neither safe nor secure.

Edwin Jones is a writer on Computer and Internet use. His latest Website gives detailed reviews on the best Password Management Software. You can view there the choices of password management software for Desktop, Mobile and Internet Systems. Go to http://password-manager-reviews.com

You have full permission to reprint this article provided this box is kept unchanged.

Visit the author's web site at: http://password-manager-reviews.com

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Firefox Just Got Better by Burk Pendergrass - ArticleCity.com

by: Burk Pendergrass

The safest most secure app for browsing the internet currently available just got better and has more improvements on the way. Are you ready for the latest Mozilla release? Firefox 3 Beta 4 is available for download, but before you go running off like some half cocked Microsoft groupie notice the "beta" tag.

Hello!! The internet is a dangerous place. The Remote Helpdesk 1 Team continues to be amused (we can no longer say amazed) at people who would not dare to venture into certain parts of a city but who seemingly rush into the internet's dark corners and dimly lighted streets ill prepared.

Before you sail into a storm baton down the hatches, and before you cruise into hacker, virus, trojan, and criminally infested areas of the world wide web at least darken the windows and arm yourself. Not to take appropriate precautions will assure your computer a visit to the infectious disease controls center if not the hard drive morgue.

Firefox developers have thus far proven themselves to the best at incorporating necessary safety features into their browser while preserving user options and cruise speeds. Online PC Repair folks feel they owe a lot of their success to getting their loyal users involved in the development and testing process. These folks, like The Tennessee Mountain Man, have helped keep the programs on track and the applications minimal. For instance, if a client wants twenty-five cents - give him a quarter like Mozilla tends to do rather that twenty-five pennies as Microsoft is famous for.

It takes a lot less resources to process one coin than it does to count twenty-five. Mozilla recognizing this has given the new "beta" release a lot of new features and improved compatibility while freeing up resources. The end result being a more nimble and faster overall browsing experience. At the same time they have enhanced Firefox's security.

Released to the public via the Mozilla website Monday, 10 March 2008, Firefox 3 Beta 4 is in the beta stage of any software's life cycle. Firefox 3 Beta 4 loudly proclaims that it is "for testing purposes only" therefore it is not for everyone. It you are a newbie or maybe even an intermediate internet user, the suggestion of the Computer Man would be that you use Firefox 2.0.0.12, the latest most stable full release until Firefox 3 is out of beta.

If you just can't wait for a better browsing experience Mozilla reports "the new release includes more than 900 enhancements from beta 3, including drastic improvements to performance and memory usage, as well as fixes for stability, platform enhancements and user interface".

But that is not the half of it... not by a long shot. "Firefox 3 is based on the Gecko 1.9 Web rendering platform, which has been under development for the past 31 months. Building on the previous release, Gecko 1.9 has more than 12,000 updates including some major re-architecting to provide improved performance, stability, rendering correctness, and code simplification and sustainability. Firefox 3 has been built on top of this new platform resulting in a more secure, easier to use, more personal product with a lot more under the hood to offer website and Firefox add-on developers improvements.", according to Mozilla.

Enhancements like these reported on the Mozilla website:

"More Secure

* One-click site info: Click the site favicon in the location bar to see who owns the site and to check if your connection is protected from eavesdropping. Identity verification is prominently displayed and easier to understand. When a site uses Extended Validation (EV) SSL certificates, the site favicon button will turn green and show the name of the company you're connected to. (Try it here!)
* Malware Protection: malware protection warns users when they arrive at sites which are known to install viruses, spyware, trojans or other malware. (Try it here!)
* New Web Forgery Protection page: the content of pages suspected as web forgeries is no longer shown. (Try it here!)
* New SSL error pages: clearer and stricter error pages are used when Firefox encounters an invalid SSL certificate. (Try it here!)
* Add-ons and Plugin version check: Firefox now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and will disable older, insecure versions.
* Secure add-on updates: to improve add-on update security, add-ons that provide updates in an insecure manner will be disabled.
* Anti-virus integration: Firefox will inform anti-virus software when downloading executables.
* Vista Parental Controls: Firefox now respects the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads.
* Effective top-level domain (eTLD) service better restricts cookies and other restricted content to a single domain.
* Better protection against cross-site JSON data leaks.

Easier to Use

* Easier password management: an information bar replaces the old password dialog so you can now save passwords after a successful login.
* Simplified add-on installation: the add-ons whitelist has been removed making it possible to install extensions from third-party sites in fewer clicks.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] New Download Manager: the revised download manager makes it much easier to locate downloaded files, and you can see and search on the name of the website where a file came from. Your active downloads and time remaining are always shown in the status bar as your files download.
* Resumable downloading: users can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Full page zoom: from the View menu and via keyboard shortcuts, the new zooming feature lets you zoom in and out of entire pages, scaling the layout, text and images, or optionally only the text size. Your settings will be remembered whenever you return to the site.
* Podcasts and Videocasts can be associated with your media playback tools.
* Tab scrolling and quickmenu: tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu.
* Save what you were doing: Firefox will prompt users to save tabs on exit.
* Optimized Open in Tabs behavior: opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs rather than overwriting.
* Location and Search bar size can now be customized with a simple resizer item.
* Text selection improvements: multiple text selections can be made with Ctrl/Cmd; double-click drag selects in "word-by-word" mode; triple-clicking selects a paragraph.
* Find toolbar: the Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
* Plugin management: users can disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Integration with Vista: Firefox now has Vista-specific icons, and uses native user interface widgets in the browser and in web forms.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Integration with the Mac: the new Firefox theme makes toolbars, icons, and other user interface elements look like a native OS X application. Firefox also uses OS X widgets and spell-checker in web forms and supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates. A combined back and forward control make it even easier to move between web pages.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Integration with Linux: Firefox's default icons, buttons, and menu styles now use the native GTK theme.

More Personal

* Star button: quickly add bookmarks from the location bar with a single click; a second click lets you file and tag them.
* Tags: associate keywords with your bookmarks to sort them by topic.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Location bar & auto-complete: type in all or part of the title, tag or address of a page to see a list of matches from your history and bookmarks; a new display makes it easier to scan through the matching results and find that page you're looking for. Results are returned according to their frecency (a combination of frequency and recency of visits to that page) ensuring that you're seeing the most relevant matches. An adaptive learning algorithm further tunes the results to your patterns!
* Smart Bookmarks Folder: quickly access your recently bookmarked and tagged pages, as well as your more frequently visited pages with the new smart bookmarks folder on your bookmark toolbar.
* Places Organizer: view, organize and search through all of your bookmarks, tags, and browsing history with multiple views and smart folders to store your frequent searches.
* Web-based protocol handlers: web applications, such as your favorite webmail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is available for other protocols (Web applications will have to first enable this by registering as handlers with Firefox).
* Download & Install Add-ons: the Add-ons Manager (Tools > Add-ons) can now be used to download and install a Firefox customization from the thousands of Add-ons available from our community add-ons website. When you first open the Add-ons Manager, a list of recommended Add-ons is shown.
* Easy to use Download Actions: a new Applications preferences pane provides a better UI for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.

Improved Platform for Developers

* New graphics and font handling: new graphics and text rendering architectures in Gecko 1.9 provides rendering improvements in CSS, SVG as well as improved display of fonts with ligatures and complex scripts.
* Color management: (set gfx.color_management.enabled on in about:config and restart the browser to enable.) Firefox can now adjust images with embedded color profiles.
* Offline support: enables web applications to provide offline functionality (website authors must add support for offline
browsing to their site for this feature to be available to users).
* A more complete overview of Firefox 3 for developers is available for website and add-on developers.

Improved Performance

* [Improved in Beta 4!] Speed: improvements to our JavaScript engine as well as profile guided optimizations have resulted in significant improvements in performance. Compared to Firefox 2, web applications like Google Mail and Zoho Office run twice as fast in Firefox 3 Beta 4, and the popular SunSpider test from Apple shows improvements over previous releases.
* [Improved in Beta 4!] Memory usage: Several new technologies work together to reduce the amount of memory used by Firefox 3 Beta 4 over a web browsing session. Memory cycles are broken and collected by an automated cycle collector, a new memory allocator reduces fragmentation, hundreds of leaks have been fixed, and caching strategies have been tuned.
* Reliability: A user's bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences are now stored in a transactionally secure database format which will prevent data loss even if their system crashes."

Mozilla provides Firefox 3 Beta 4 for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in forty different languages, and reports it can be removed without losing your bookmarks, web browsing history, extensions and other add-ons. Best of all - it is FREE ! Just download, install, and enjoy a whole new faster browsing experience if your computer meets one of the following system requirements.

Windows
Operating Systems

* Windows 2000
* Windows XP
* Windows Server 2003
* Windows Vista

Minimum Hardware

* Pentium 233 MHz (Recommended: Pentium 500MHz or greater)
* 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
* 52 MB hard drive space

Mac
Operating Systems

* Mac OS X 10.4 and later

Minimum Hardware

* Macintosh computer with an Intel x86 or PowerPC G3, G4, or G5 processor
* 128 MB RAM (Recommended: 256 MB RAM or greater)
* 200 MB hard drive space

Linux
Software Requirements
Please note that Linux distributors may provide packages for your distribution which have different requirements.

* Linux kernel - 2.2.14 or higher with the following libraries or packages:
o glibc 2.3.2 or higher
o XFree86-3.3.6 or higher
o gtk+2.0 or higher
o fontconfig (also known as xft)
o libstdc++5

Minimum Hardware

* Intel Pentium II or AMD K6-III+ 233 MHz CPU (Recommended: 500MHz or greater)
* 64 MB RAM (Recommended: 128 MB RAM or greater)
* 52 MB hard drive space

And, if you still have not tried Mozilla Thunderbird,

get ready to kick Outlook Express to the curb!

Publication of Burk Pendergrass, J.D., a Cherokee Indian and Viet Nam Vet specializing in website design at http://computermanwebsitedesign.bravehost.com/ and http://remotehelpdesk1.com/ specializing in online web based computer repair.

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Oracle 11G's Strong Verifier and Case Sensitive Password ...

by: Paul Fleming

As an Oracle DBA, you probably have heard a lot about the new security features in Oracle 11G such as database vault, audit vault, strong verifier, enhanced ASO, etc. But with a busy schedule, how do you find the time to study all the topics in depth? Are all of them going to affect your daily DBA operations? What should you know first and foremost? Of course, depending on the particular database you are administering, you will have your unique need. But as a rule of thumb, what tends to affect you the most is almost never those cool new features. The reason is simple: if you don't use them, they won't affect you. What tends to affect you is the change in the existing features that might lead to compatibility or interoperability issues. When that script you have used for years suddenly stops working, you will be disappointed. When your boss or above calls to ask what happened, you could feel terrible.

In this article, we discuss the new password case sensitivity feature in 11G. Every Oracle session starts with authentication. If the authentication fails at the beginning of your script, everything that follows will almost certainly be broken. So what was changed, why, and what should you know?

A Primer on Verifier

I'll start with a primer on password verifier. As you probably know, for security reasons, Oracle user's passwords are never stored as clear text. Instead, they are stored as a "verifier", a one-way hash value calculated from the clear text password. Hash verifier has a few unique features. One, it is "one-way": It is easy to calculate the hash value from a clear text password, but it is nearly impossible to figure out the clear text password from a hash value. Two, different clear texts almost never yield the same hash value (called collision). These features allow Oracle database to store the hash value of a user's password as a surrogate for the clear text password. When a user provides a password to logon, Oracle calculates the hash value from that password, and allows the user to logon if it matches the hash value that is stored in the database. To get a feel what an Oracle verifier looks like, take a look at the PASSWORD column in the user$ table in SYS schema (of course, you will need SYSDBA privilege to do that).

SELECT NAME,PASSWORD FROM SYS.USER$ ORDER BY NAME;

What Was Changed

Prior to 11G, Oracle passwords were case insensitive. "foobar", "FOOBAR", and "FoOBaR" are identical when used as an Oracle password. They yield the same hash value. If a user could log in with password "foobar", he could log in with "FOOBAR" as well. In 11G, however, when you create or modify user accounts, by default passwords are case sensitive. 11G also introduces a "salt" in the hash value generation so that even two users have identical passwords, their verifiers would still be different.

Oracle allows to you to control password case sensitivity for backward compatibility by setting the SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON initialization parameter. Only users who have the ALTER SYSTEM privilege can set the SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON parameter. Set it to TRUE to enable case sensitivity or FALSE to disable case sensitivity.

ALTER SYSTEM SET SEC_CASE_SENSITIVE_LOGON = TRUE | FALSE;

How Case Sensitivity Affects Password Files

As you may remember, Oracle stores the passwords (again in the form of verifiers) of users with SYSDBA and SYSOPER privileges in a "password file" on the server, rather than in the database. You can enable or disable case sensitivity for password files by using the ignorecase argument in the ORAPWD command line utility. The default value for ignorecase is n (no), which enforces case sensitivity.

Here is an example of how to enable password case sensitivity for SYSDBA and SYSOPER users

orapwd file=orapw entries=100 ignorecase=n
Enter password for SYS: password

This creates a password file called orapwd. Since ignorecase is set to n (no), the password entered for the password parameter will be case sensitive. Afterwards, if you connect using this password, it succeeds(as long as you enter the password using the exact same characters with the exact same case as created). If you enter the same password with different case, it will fail
If you, the DBA, sets the system to ignorecase to y, then the passwords in the password file are case insensitive, and this means that you can enter the password using any capitalization that you want.

It is important to note that given the way it is controlled, within one Oracle system, the password's case sensitivity of a regular user and a SYSDBA/SYSOPER user can be independent.

How Password Case Sensitivity Affects Import and Upgrade

What happens when you export some users from a previous database where the password is case insensitive into 11G? The case-insensitive passwords in these accounts remain case insensitive, even if the 11G system has turned on password case sensitivity. This makes sense because otherwise old users may not be able to log on from a previously working script or client program. This, however, will change when the user changes his or her password.

You can find users who have case sensitive or case insensitive passwords by querying the DBA_USERS view. The PASSWORD_VERSIONS column in this view indicates the release in which the password was created. For example:

SELECT USERNAME, PASSWORD_VERSIONS FROM DBA_USERS;

USERNAME PASSWORD_VERSIONS
------------------------------ -----------------
JONES 10G 11G
ADAMS 10G 11G
CLARK 10G 11G
PRESTON 11G
BLAKE 10G

The passwords for accounts jones, adams, and clark were originally created in Release 10g and then reset in Release 11g. Their passwords, assuming case sensitivity has been enabled, are now case sensitive, as is the password for preston. However, the account for blake is still using the Release 10g standard, so it is case insensitive. Once he changes his password, it will become case sensitive and more secure.

Conclusion

Users' passwords in Oracle 11G database become case sensitive by default. Regular user and SYSDBA/SYSOPER user's password case sensitivity can be controlled independently. If you have a script with inconsistent password cases, the script may stop working with 11G even though it works fine with previous releases. To learn more about this topic, read "Security Guide" (Oracle Part Number B28531-03).

Peter Dwyer is an internationally known System and Database Architect for Oracle environments. He is founding principal of The Certainty Group (http://www.certaintygroup.com), a Boston-based Oracle database consultation company specializing in quickly assessing and correcting complex problems in multi-vendor, mission-critical systems that demand high performance and reliability.

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