I have been a long time user of Password managers, just for the convenience. And with internet security crumbling around us, we might need them even more. I actually use 2 password managers, but might have to consider changing up based on future features, many of which have been announced.
Now about the two programs I use and why.
For web browser based password management I have used LastPass for years. Now Cloud based security has always scared me, but they use plug in based encryption, and 2 Step Verification (I used Google Authenticator to get a second password to log in). It is a great paid service (yearly fee) and offers security checks on passwords and warns of security breaches, but the interface is a bit archaic, and it does seem to have many problems with ending up with many different password entries for many web sites, and it can be hard to tell which one is correct. It has an iOS APP, but doesn’t integrate with iOS Safari as it does with browsers on Android, so I don’t like it’s interface, and use another solution. I do already use it’s sister app Xmarks to sync bookmarks though so I have always gotten a discount for both!
For an iOS and Mac based password manager I used Spashdata‘s Splash ID Safe. It has Mac and Windows based apps, as well as iOS Android and many other apps. I went with Splash ID as I had been using their apps since old Palm Pilot days. Now originally you could buy Splash ID and it synced via iTunes sync (or Android syncing) to your phone, and kept in sync with your computer with your passwords. It never had problems with multiple entries as it did not work as a browser based system, so you enter everything, and can organize it easily as you see fit. And yes I do enter all my passwords in it, and then let LastPass also have my passwords. Of course now it has moved to a cloud based system, though you can chose to not go cloud, but to sync between devices you need Cloud, which I have always felt it was less secure, but now it has 2 pass verification, but I still prefred to have something online.
Now there has been a 3rd solution for a long time, which I do not use which is 1Password. It is browser, App and Phone based, kind of combining 1Pass and SplashiD safe (i now LastPass has iOS and Android apps, but I never liked it much, and the iOS one can’t integrate with your browser anyway, though it can on android) but without the cloud based solutions, so it is more secure, though less portable to say a work computer. Still this does mean more security, which I do like, and it can do iCloud, Dropbox or WIFI only sync.
Anyway, the reason I am writing this is because of future features of these apps, because I saw an article on
MacStories about how 1Password iOS App is adding Extension for the future iOS 8 which will make it work within iOS Safari to both recall and generate passwords! This would make it the best overall all around Password manager around, so I am going to look into it, but SplashData is going to be adding features too.
According to SpashData’s SplashID Safe Blog, SplashID 8 is coming soon. It is updating the apps and making the UI even better, with automatic backup, new plug-ins for Chrome, Safari and Firefox to make it fully browser usable, and with a security feature to alert and one step fix compromised, outdated, weak and duplicate passwords, which would be awesome! My only question is if it will also do an iOS 8 Extension so it works with Mobile Safari?
(A quick little update on 1Password, it seems they have a new feature called Watchtower that checks for site vulnerabilities and warns you about weak, duplicate and compromised, much like SplashID’s new feature, though it does not as of yet add one step fixing as far as I know.)
So what to do? Hmmm, not sure yet, but I am going to research 1Password, and see if I can easily move to it, but wait to see about SplashID, because it would be great to be able to move to a single Password manager I can sue across all devices!
