Post Published on October 11, 2010.
Last Updated on November 29, 2017 by davemackey.

KeePass is a free and open source password manager that easily outstrips the commercial alternatives I have encountered. I’ve been using KeePass for several years now and can’t complain one bit.

What For?

You shouldn’t use the same password for every site, in fact, ideally you shouldn’t be using the same password on any two sites or services you access. So, your login to your bank should not be the same as to your email or to login to your computer – and so on. If they are the same you run the risk of one site being compromised and hackers being able to gain access to a large number of your sites. When you begin to carry this best practice out in real life you find yourself with a tremendous number of passwords – and KeePass helps you securely store and manage account information.

Don’t be deceived – KeePass can keep a lot more than just username/password combinations. If you wanted to you could use KeePass to keep a private journal…

Features:

• Utilizes advanced security methods to protect your data – for examples AES-256 and SHA-256.
• Import/Export Features to/from many formats.
• Allows for the creation of groups for organizing passwords.
• Integrates with web browsers, etc. to automatically input information.
• Robust search that allows you to quickly find records based on any word in the record.
• Has a plugin architecture that allows for extendibility.
• Runs on a wide variety of Operating Systems.
• Shows you how strong your passwords are as you type them.
• Can generate random passwords for you.

Conclusion:

I suppose I could go on…but enough said. Its a great little application – there is no reason not to use it. Go get it now. There is no excuse not to be keeping track of your accounts and no excuse for this information to be unencrypted.