Re: Is Keychain or any other program safe for storing sensitive data on a desktop Mac?

From	Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
Newsgroups	comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject	Re: Is Keychain or any other program safe for storing sensitive data on a desktop Mac?
Date	2018-11-11 18:06 +1300
Organization	Aioe.org NNTP Server
Message-ID	<ps8dd1$r97$1@gioia.aioe.org> (permalink)
References	<2018110721595581963-tomevans9890@yahoo.ca> <51W5y0sPNk52-pn2-1Tddle6ukFdg@localhost>

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On 2018-11-10 21:22:58 +0000, John Varela said:
> On Sat, 10 Nov 2018 02:01:30 UTC, Your Name <YourName@YourISP.com>
> wrote:
>> On 2018-11-09 22:53:35 +0000, John Varela said:
>>> On Fri, 9 Nov 2018 19:03:43 UTC, Tom Evans <tomevans9890@yahoo.ca>
>>> wrote:
>>>> On 2018-11-09 05:23:05 +0000, nospam said:
>>>>> In article <2018110820550661596-tomevans9890@yahoo.ca>, Tom Evans
>>>>> <tomevans9890@yahoo.ca> wrote:
>>>>>>>> I thought maybe the thief was able to hack into my Mac and find my bank
>>>>>>>> information there.  (I have my user names and passcodes stored on my
>>>>>>>> Mac, but in a text program and not in Keychain.)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> that's *not* a good idea.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Two messages down, Your Name wrote that it's "immensely unlikely" that
>>>>>> a hacker hack into my bank data on  my Mac, and two messages up, Callum
>>>>>> wrote "If nobody else has physical access to that desktop Mac [which
>>>>>> nobody does] it's very safe indeed, especially if you don't sync the
>>>>>> keychain via iCloud to any other Mac" [which I haven't].
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> So who's right, those two guys, or Nospam here, who wrote that it's
>>>>>> "not a good idea" to store sensitive data in a text file on a Mac?
>>>>> 
>>>>> everyone is.
>>>>> 
>>>>> it's never a good idea to store sensitive data in an unencrypted file
>>>>> especially if it has an obvious name, like passwords.txt.
>>>>> 
>>>>> that doesn't mean someone hacked you, but if they did, that's going to
>>>>> be the first file they're going to look at.
>>>>> 
>>>>> at a minimum, such a file should be encrypted, but a much better
>>>>> solution is use password management app which is designed for that
>>>>> purpose, or use the built in keychain.
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks, Nospam.
>>>> 
>>>> What passcode management programs do you recommend?
>>>> 
>>>> I checked Keychain, but it seems like it would be hard to find the
>>>> company information I want to look for there.
>>>> 
>>>> I want to have a list of companies that I deal with, shown in
>>>> alphabetical order (such as Amazon, Apple, Best Buy, Costco, etcetera),
>>>> with each company's information in one place under the company's name
>>>> heading in bold type, but instead  Keychain has one folder for
>>>> passcodes, and another folder for Secure Notes, so I'd have to have
>>>> each company's passcodes and notes into separate folders, and then
>>>> scroll through those two folders to see each company's passcodes and
>>>> notes.
>>> 
>>> 1Password has separate "Categories" for logins, secure notes,
>>> software registrations, and others, but you don't have to use that.
>>> There is a Notes item in each login entry, and there you can type in
>>> anything you want and even import files, such as a copy of the
>>> registration email from a software vendor.
>>> 
>>> Personally, I find it convenient to declutter the login items and
>>> store the software registrations together, but to each his own.
>> 
>> Another bonus with 1Password (and probably some of the other password
>> managers) is that you can easily read / copy the information from the
>> menu bar icon, after entering your master password, without having to
>> open up the full app.
> 
> That feature is particularly useful when logging into sites that are
> 1Password- (and presumably others)- unfriendly, such as the Apple
> App Store and the Oxford English Dictionary web site, which wants a
> library card number instead of a UserID and password.

I don't use the automatic form filling anyway, so I'm always using the 
menu bar access to get passwords from 1Password.   :-)

You can edit existing data via the menu bar and generate random 
passwords, but you can't add new items. You have to use the main app to 
make new entries.

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