Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Passwords: A Necessary Evil

So I am sure everyone has ran into the problem of not remembering a password from time to time. For most cases, I just use the Explorer add on LastPass (which by the way is beyond fantastic too if you go from computer to computer or browser to browser routinely).  I don't use the password saving function of the different browsers as I am worried about the security of these.   LastPass  uses 256-bit AES encryption to store your passwords, so you can rest easy on the security level.

What  LastPass  cannot do is help you recover the passwords for Windows log in.  This can be a major headache for you if you have forgotten the password and now cannot log in to Windows.  Rest easy, there is a tool to help you out!  Ophcrack is a password recovery tool that I have to run every now and then to recover passwords on devices for individuals.  The coolest part is that you don't even have to install a program to recover the passwords.  You can just burn Ophcrack onto a CD and then boot the CD directly when you start up your computer.  You might have to change some BIOS settings to get this to run, but if you aren't familiar with this already, I wouldn't recommend messing with it.

Passwords are extremely important when it comes to security, but they can cause quite the headache when you can't remember something.  Remembering passwords can also be difficult if you have a disability that affects your memory.  The thing to remember is that there are tools out there to help you if you get stuck!

Here are the links to the different programs/add ons I cover in the post:

Ophcrack: http://www.ophcrack.sourceforge.net/
LastPass: https://www.lastpass.com/

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