MacAppZone

1Password: Powerful Password Manager

April 10th, 2009 by Erik Bernskiold

As we need to store more and more passwords for an increasingly large number of online services, and as the passwords grow more and more complex for security reasons, a solid password database application is almost necessary. One of these applications is 1Password from Agile Software that we are taking a look at today!

1Pasword from Agile Software is a password manager that allows you to save paswords to a secure database that is locked with a master password, the only one you ever need to remember. You can organize your passwords into categories and folders so that you can easily find the password that you are looking for and the login information for the certain service.

Browser Extensions

Something that is smart inside of 1Password is the Browser Extensions. The application features a number of different browser extensions that are installable into most major (and smaller) browsers on the marker through a simple click in a checkbox of the 1Password preferences. What these extensions will do is that they will extend the features of 1Password into the browser. You will see a little 1Password icon in the icons toolbar. When you visit a website where you have to login, you can just click on that icon which will reveal a drop-down list where you can select the login you want to use for the website. The beautiful part here is that it only displays you the logins that are saved with the same URL that you are visiting. So if you happen to be visiting a fraud URL, you won’t be able to use the login credentials directly.

The browser extensions also make it really simple to save login details for new sites. When you type in the information and submit a forum, you will be given the option to save this in 1Password for future use. It’ll ask you to give it a name (it’ll automatically use the site name) and ask if you want to put it in a category.

Wallet Items, Notes & Identities

1Password cannot only save passwords. It can also be used as a place to store secure notes about anything. These notes will be protected with your main database password as everything else is.

You can also save things like email account information, bank account details, credit card numbers and things like that in the Wallet section. There are a lot of templates for the most used you may wish to save. If you want, you can also save each and every software license that you purchase.

Another really smart thing is the identities. The identities allow you to fill in information about yourself such as name, address, email, phone, country and the usual (and non-usual) things that you may find in online forms. Then when you are ready to register or sign-up at a place you don’t need to type that information yourself. You just go into the 1Password browser extension button and chose to insert the identity of your choice (you can store multiple). Very time saving!

iPhone Companion

The 1Password application also has an application on the iPhone that it syncs to very reliably over Wi-Fi, so that you can have your passwords with you on the go. The main login to the application is protected by a four digit passcode but you can also set up the individual passwords to require your master password to be inserted before they display! This means that you can have different security levels of passwords that you access on the phone.

 

Sadly enough Apple won’t allow applications to act as plugins to the mobile Safari that is in the iPhone. This means that 1Password uses its own browser to launch websites you log into. It would have been great if it could just log you into the site in Safari instead as it is much simpler to get back into. This is just the bit that makes the 1Password iPhone app a little less worth.

Conclusion

The 1Password application is definitely a great application that does a masterful job at saving your information and keeping it available. I really like the browser extensions and the ability to access your login information as quickly as you can through the browser without going into the application (you don’t even need to have it open) and copy/paste the password. If anything, I wish that I could use my own templates in the wallet instead of being limited to the built-in ones.

Rating: 9/10

Developer: Agile Web Solutions (iPhone App Link)
Requirements: Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Price: $39.95