1Password Protects and Prevents

We live in a threatening and dangerous world where we cannot even trust our own government not to deceive and disappoint us.  Security of our proprietary information is paramount in the vulnerable warp and woof of our social fabric, and that’s why — even when I first reviewed 1Password way back on December 8, 2009 — I knew securing all my passwords in a single, super-hardened, space was not only important, but necessary:

It took me several days to change and update all my passwords — but once that dirty deed was done, I was able to relax a bit in my core knowing I now had randomized and much more secure passwords covering my life — and the great thing is I don’t have to remember any of them!

1Password remembers all those passwords and usernames and automatically logs me in with the touch of a button on my web browser.

1Password also has an iPhone app that will sync — unfortunately via WiFi only, and both your computer and iPhone must be on the same WiFi network — your desktop accounts and passwords back and forth so you can be safe and secure when you’re online with your iPhone as well.

I’ve been writing about password protection here in Boles Blogs since at least December 11, 2005 — and that is one of the great facts of the matter of writing a big blog such as this for such a long time:  The prospective record of the truth is long-preserved throughout time so we can place ourselves in previous moments to view what was and what we have become:

A couple of months ago my Network Solutions account was compromised in that my username and password were changed without my knowledge. I have a sneaking suspicion that event may have been a preemptive strike against my move away from Network Solutions web hosting to Media Temple — if you can’t get into your NetSol account you cannot change the DNS pointers — but I have no proof of that suspicion other than a modulating paranoia and the uncomfortable knowledge there’s no such thing as a coincidence.

I was able to work around that lockout and I moved my DNS pointers to the Media Temple servers and all my sites are currently hosted with (mt). Lately I have heard too many stories from friends that their blogs have been defaced and that other previously thought “secure” places elsewhere had been broken and entered.

Today, 1Password was updated in the Mac store to version 4.0, and it is now as up-to-date as its iOS cousins on the iPhone and iPad!  Finally, we can have inescapable, transparent, and secure syncing across all our usable Apple devices.

I now enjoy the unity of the whole 1Password product line, and I appreciate the ability to sync all devices to iCloud or Dropbox or iTunes or via a shared WiFi network.

That sort of ease-of-use encourages total immersion of the product across all human slides and mechanical bridges.

I have been a daily devotee of 1Password ever since I wrote the first review, and I can advise you that using the software makes managing an ever-expanding life online much simpler — while also being much safer.

However, take heed, that even the hardest password can eventually be cracked by a devoted, bad, motivator with the proper tools and access — but making your niche of the world a little more secure generally makes you tougher against randomized attacks poking for standard, generic, vulnerabilities.

By using 1Password, you encourage the anonymous striker to move beyond you and onto a weaker target — and that’s all you can ask in an ever-tightening and deceptive world spinning out of control around you.