This Week’s Word: Keychain Access

Last week, I gave you some tips on coming up with great passwords and this week, I am going to tell you how to save those passwords. A great way to save the passwords is an application called “Keychain Access.”

The good thing about Keychain Access is that your computer is already using it. Your computer securely saves passwords in the Keychain automatically. If you access an application which Keychain Access has a password saved for, it will ask you if it can use that password. You have the option to Allow it once, Always Allow it, or Deny it.

If you forget your password, go to Applications, then Utilities. In this folder, you should find the application “Keychain Access”. Using the Spotlight search in the upper right of the program window, type in the name of the website or application for which you want the password. For example, if you want the password for your Time Capsule, type in “Time Capsule” in the search field. Double click on your result. A small box should pop up. On the bottom, click on “Show password”. This should give you a box to enter your administrative name and password. After you do that, you should be able to see your password right next to the “Show password” box that you previously clicked on.

The security of your keychain access relies on having one really solid administrative password. If you have a hard password to crack, and you set the keychain to have you enter it each time that you want to access a password, this will keep your passwords saved within Keychain safe. However, if your administrative password is not too hard, then you are putting your passwords at risk by saving them in Keychain. Of course, safety is dependent on many more, complicated factors as well.

There’s the basics of Keychain access. Please let me know if you have any questions!

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