How to use password security tools in Windows 7

As the public's digital life field becomes more and more complex, the threats posed by malicious Security hackers and malware are also growing. To avoid security incidents, the use of a strong password becomes more necessary. For most people, the content of a strong password is very difficult to remember, it is becoming more and more common to write it on the fly or save it in text files. Therefore, using the password manager has become the only solution to this problem. An excellent Password Manager can convert the problem of memorizing hundreds of strong passwords into a situation where simple independent passwords can be used to save all strong passwords without affecting the system security.

In the previous article, the author introduced how to use pwsafe as a shortcut key to drive x tools, which greatly improved the performance of common password manager on Unix desktop systems using X Window mode. Even if you do not have a solution like converting pwsafe into a shortcut key driver, it is also a very good password management tool, just as good as password guard and my password security.

These three cryptographic managers all adopt peer reviews, deep tests, and strong encryption modes for Password Storage. They are all open-source tools, all design content is verifiable. In fact, my password security is based on the free copy authorization terms in the Berkeley Software Distribution License model. Because the Password Manager is designed to be compatible with the password security, the same password database format is used, which allows mutual compatibility between the three.

Password security is a Password Manager developed by Bruce Schnell and Counterpane labs for Microsoft Windows users. It has been released and adopts the art authorization mode. You can log on to the official website and select the "Click here to get the latest version" link to download the tool directly. According to the instructions on the website:

Password security allows you to manage previous passwords, and quickly generate, save, manage, search, and apply complex new passwords. In addition, you can deploy control policies for passwords. Once the storage is complete, you only need to click a few to select the user name and password.

For most users, the entire installation process is very simple because there is no need to select non-default configuration options. During installation, the most likely project to be modified is the "installation type". In some cases, some users may want to select the "green" option, in this way, you can use a separate USB flash drive to save the password database for easy carrying, and do not write information in the Windows registry. However, for most users, you can select the "regular" option.

After enabling password security, it provides a text field tag called "Open Password Database", which can be used to access the Saved Password. Therefore, the user needs to create a password database at the first start time. For future smooth operations, click the create database button.

Next, the user will see the dialog box asking for the new password database name. After you enter your desired name or select "Accept default name", and click "save", the "Combine Settings" dialog box appears. Although the name "Security combo" looks very deep, all the operations required here are actually to set a master password, used to verify the access to the password that will be stored in the password security encryption database. Here, you need to repeat the master password twice, one in the security combination, one in the Verification Section, and then click the OK button to set it as the master password of the password database. If the set password is too simple, the software will pop up a warning window asking the user whether to continue using the password or re-select a more powerful password.

After setting the database password, you can open the password security main interface. A series of buttons are arranged at the top. The blank area below shows that the password database has not saved data. As long as the password security window is active, a prompt will appear when you place the mouse on the button that is not dimmed to describe the basic functions of this operation. It looks like a table. The Green Circle button with the plus sign in the lower right corner is used to add new entries. Click Add to open the data input window and add the new password to the database.

Before you enter the password into the database, you should first set the password policy. To complete this operation, you need to click the password policy column in the data input window. The default random password generation rules are relatively simple and cannot generate the most powerful passwords. The full significance of using the password manager is to save time for users to manage passwords that are difficult to remember. Therefore, selecting as many character types as possible to create a password series seems to be an obvious choice, in addition, for password security, the default password policy of 8-character letters and numbers is far from enough. Therefore, to eliminate this defect, three simple operations should be performed as follows:

L select the following policy items: click "open settings" to increase the password length setting parameter.

L The minimum password length should also be increased to 20.

L select the use symbol check box.

Go back to the general options bar and use the new policy to generate the required password.

In terms of password classification, password security adopts a simple classification mode, allowing users to be classified by "group. For example, if you set a password for an email account, you should enter the email name in the group section to add the new password to the group. The title section allows users to indicate the field of use of passwords. For example, if the project stores a GMail password, you can enter "GMail ". The user name and password are saved in the database entry as authentication creden. The network address and email part will be saved in the password security help document, but will not be used when the software is working; the role of the remarks part is as indicated by its name, the location where the remarks related to the specified password are saved.

Creating a new password is a good idea. Unfortunately, in some authentication systems today, incorrect password policies may prevent users from using the most powerful passwords; the password policy used by American Express in recent years is a typical negative model, which limits our ability to use a randomly generated strong password. In this case, you still choose to use a randomly generated complex password. You only need to use the display button at the bottom of the basic options bar to adjust the password and manually edit it, it is usually a good idea to remove characters prohibited by the restrictive password policy and change the password to conform to the requirements. But a better idea is to stop using apps, websites, services, and other projects that force weak passwords.

Unfortunately, password security does not support saving the custom password policy when the first Password entry is created in the database. To change the password policy, you must first save a password in the database. Once this operation is completed, the password input item is highlighted. At this time, click the edit data button to display a pencil-like graphic ID. In this case, you can open the password policy option and the application button will appear at the bottom of the window. After adjusting the password policy, you can use the application and OK buttons to save the password. Now, when you select to use the generate button in the basic options bar to create a new random password, the new policy is applied by default.

In the default password security settings, the icon is added to the "hidden icon" on the Microsoft Windows 7 System Tray. In this way, you can start the software by double-clicking the icon at any time. If you use password security to create multiple password databases and open several at the same time, multiple password security icons will appear in the system tray, each corresponding to an opened database.

If the number of passwords in the password database is small, it is very easy to find and store passwords. Find password security from the system tray and choose to start it. Find the required password in the main window. Next, double-click the password to copy it to the clipboard. Of course, you can also click the execute button at the top of the window (the two methods have the same effect, you can copy the password to the clipboard ). Now, you can paste the password creden。 used for verification copied from the database to the clipboard to the logon or other authentication windows to be used. After the paste operation is complete, the password security will clear the data in the clipboard.

Fighting against wrong password policies is more important than trying to make others choose strong passwords. In fact, we should all start from ourselves. An excellent Password Manager such as password security can help people get better password policies.