So I did it, I’m officially “password organized”. I admit, I just made up that term but I’m finally on track with all of my passwords, completely organized and it feels great! This may sound like a rather trivial accomplishment but you would not believe how many of us are just all over the place with our passwords!

Like most people I started with my passwords on a piece of paper. Oh joy, that’s secure. There they were, written on a sheet of paper next to my desktop (at the time). Now granted this was a number of years back when we really only had a few online passwords. Back then it was easy to keep track. You typically had one username that you stuck with and a standard password or two that you used with maybe some slight variations that were sort of easy to keep in your head.

So I had just a handful of these written on my little tattered sheet of paper near my computer and it worked.  Then a few years passed. Facebook came along, then twitter, then google plus, then another email account, and a few more financial institutions, oh and don’t forget pinterest and tumblr and constant contact and passwords for my business and passwords for just personal accounts and passwords for things that I signed up for that I no longer really need but I haven’t gotten around to cancel. Well you get the idea.  I had to do something. The sheet of paper had turned into a lengthy list of cross outs and run on information so I opted to transfer everything to a password protected excel spreadsheet.

There I had a number of columns. Web address, login info, password and a column for notes. I had been using this system for a number of years. I’d make copies of the electronic file so just in case it became corrupted I had a backup. I named it something inconspicuous, not “password sheet” of course, something a little more creative. Password protected the document and kept that on my machine. I felt pretty good. I had them organized, the information was there and all in one place. It wasn’t perfect but it was better.

Then just recently I was having some computer issues and my brother Ross, being the tech savvy guy that he is (and just so happens to be the owner of RingAGeek) remoted into my machine to help me out. (He was able to do this from his office in Florida via the internet, he has a server with this technology that is pretty cool by the way).

I needed help with something that involved retrieving a password from my excel worksheet. I let him know that I would need to open the excel file. He then replied saying “Excel, what…you’re saving your passwords in excel!” I could have sworn I heard cartoon wheels screeching over the telephone. He asked why and proceeded to firmly let me know that excel isn’t all that secure even though the file was password protected.  What I was doing was not very safe and secure, not efficient and obviously not recommended.  It was then that Ross introduced me to KeePass.

He went on to explain that it’s a free, open source password manager that I could easily install, learn and start using. I could keep my passwords organized in this database and back up the data when I did my usual computer backups. So with his help we downloaded the file and he showed me how to enter one or two as an example. Within minutes I was adding my data and rolling along. Transferring my passwords into this database. There’s plenty of space for usernames, url’s, notes and there’s even an automatic password generator should you choose to use it.

I’ll admit. It took a few weeks for me to transfer all my data over. Get used to working in and retrieving my information from a database but I will tell you this. I’m not going back! Just a few moments before starting this article I deleted my excel file and the backups.  That’s it, no more lists for me! From now on its password database nirvana!

By: Kimberly Deprey:  RingAGeek.com Remote Computer Repair Specialists, Don’t freak! Ring A Geek!