How to store the hundreds of passwords securely. Also how to make long passwords. How to make and remember the master password.

1. How I solved my password problem
By : Khawar Nehal
Applied Technology Research Center
http://atrc.net.pk
Dubai Computer Services.
http://dubai-computer-services.com
Date : 6 Sep 2014

2. Problem
Just like many other people, I have to have
passwords.

3. Sentences
Since many years the computers required longer
passwords due to the ever increasing
computation speeds of computers.
So I came up with the pass-sentence idea many
years ago and write about that.
In this my passwords looks like a sentence like
this : “thisismypasswordanditislong”

4. Storage
What I used to do is create different passwords
for many sites which I visited. Also I was
responsible for a lot of ISPs concurrently so there
needed to be a way to store all passwords.

5. Paper
Initially it was all done on paper with paper
backups. The paper was well guarded physically.

6. Electronic
The about 10 years ago I stored the passwords in
a directory aptly called “passwords.”
I was not afraid of anyone getting access through
the network because I was always using some
version of Linux installed less than 6 months ago.

7. Encrypted partition
Now the laptop and desktop had to be physically
protected.
Then a few years ago I started using an encrypted
partition. This way, the computer needs the
password on startup and if you do not give the
password, the encrypted partition is not available.

8. Solution for you
So I if you want peace of mind, you can use my
password management system to prevent
unauthorized access to your stuff on the
computers and the net.

9. Procedure
Copy all of your data off the computer to backup.
Download the latest available ISO of the OS.
Create an encrypted partition of about 100 MB
when installing the OS.
This procedure needs to be done every 6 months
so your OS distribution is fresh.
This solves the update causing your apps to go
haywire issue.
And increases security while keeping your system
running smoothly.

10. Procedure
Create a directory called passwords in an
encrypted partition.
Create directories in the passwords directory for
each domain and application. Examples :
yahoo.com, your_database, your_server, ...

11. Files
Create text files or odt files in the directories with
the date and version in the name of the file.
Example : in yahoo.com you might have a file
called khawar.nehal_5_sep_2014-1.txt

12. Contents of files
Inside the file the contents look like :
User khawar.nehal
Password thisismylongpassword
Date of birth 9/11/2001
Alternative email : khawar@gmail.com
… any other info relevant to the password.

13. File names.
If the file is changed on the same day then the file
name may look like
Khawar.nehal_5_sep_2014-3.txt
To represent the 3rd version on the 5th of sep 2014
This is to avoid having any wrong CMOS/BIOS
clock time messing up your backup/restore.

14. Old files
Old files are deleted regularly.
If a restore is required and they show up again,
they are deleted.
With terabytes of storage, the number of files
does not matter. Just delete the old ones and
keep the latest.
Use save as to change the name to the new
version to avoid restore disasters.

15. GPG
Also use GPG with symmetric encryption when
copying to backups.
To make it easy, use a king of reminder in the
GPG file name to help you figure out the master
passwords of the whole backup file.

16. Reminder
For example your master password for the GPG
file is maryhadalittlelamb. You could use the
reminder KG to remind you of the password.
Anything which shall help you remember your
long pass-sentence.

17. GPG
I hope you shall be able to use this procedure to
have strong passwords and keep them secure.
If you need help with other computer security
issues or better ideas on how to manage your
enterprise security requirements.
Please contact me :
khawar@dubai-computer-services.com and
mention this presentation.

18. How I solved my password problem
By : Khawar Nehal
Applied Technology Research Center
http://atrc.net.pk
Dubai Computer Services.
http://dubai-computer-services.com
Date : 6 Sep 2014

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