Password storage service Passpack has a new feature that lets you share your account log-ins with others. It's meant as a way to securely share things like usernames and passwords outside of e-mail or IM conversations, and requires that both parties be registered Passpack users.
Inviting someone to get access to a certain log-in is fairly simple, although you have to be Passpack friends with them first. Then it's simply a matter of checking off which log-in or log-ins you want to share. This is handled in two places, both on your friends page and on each site's entry. From there you can pick how much access you want each contact to have, including whether they can just view it, or go in and make changes.
One smart thing about this system is that as the sharer, you can turn off that access whenever you want. The service makes note of each entry that you're sharing and gives you a quick way to revoke access to everyone sharing that certain entry, or to certain individuals entirely. This means that if you're sharing passwords with an employee who leaves the company, you can pull off his or her access to those passwords immediately.
Passwords you're sharing get a special orange tag. You can also sort just by shared passwords.
(Credit: Passpack)I can't say I totally find this feature ideal though. For one, the person you're sharing with needs to be a registered user of Passpack, which means you need to bug them to sign up, then get whatever case-sensitive usernickname they've come up with. Second, you're giving people entire log-ins, which means they can just take that information and save it somewhere.
The system is not currently set up to let you share access to a site without the other person seeing the credentials (which it can do for you if you're using the service's autofill bookmarklet). So, say for example I'm using this for work, and want to give Rafe the username and password to the company YouTube account. I'd much rather be able to provision him temporary access to that site without him being able to change passwords and potentially lock me out. However, something like that would require OAuth on each site to make that happen.
Where I think this feature will really shine is for providing spousal or family security, where you can give other people you trust access to your information in case something bad happens to you. Similar to what Legacy Locker provides, this would give those people everything they need to control your various accounts if you die.
PassPack is a password-saving service I first checked out back in January of last year. This past week it released a really cool and smart password-saving tool that exists separately from your browser and lets you manage your passwords while offline. It also syncs up with PassPack's cloud storage to let you access your shared passwords, then sync them to multiple, authorized computers.
The application's claim to fame is that you can access your passwords while offline and without the use of your browser. If you don't feel like installing a new, standalone app, you can get similar functionality by trying out the offline version of PassPack that takes advantage of Google Gears to let you do this while away from an Internet connection.
Since Adobe's AIR is cross-platform (download for Mac or Windows), PassPack's developers have chosen to spend more time developing it than the browser-based Gears iteration. Plus, if you're a user of multiple browsers, including some that fall outside the Gears love (like Opera (download for Windows or Mac)), the desktop application will work without issues.
One current weak point with the AIR app (that's due to be remedied soon) is that any locally created passwords will not sync back up with your central PassPack account, so if you're intending to add any new ones you should do that in the Web version instead. The tool also requires the use of an incredibly strong packing password that will roll up all your other passwords. Like I said when I first checked out the service, you're best to write it down somewhere as without it there's no way to recover notes and passwords stored in your account.
PassPack Desktop performs in much the same way the Web version does, although you can access it while away from your browser.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
I'm a sucker for password tools. Since signing on with Webware late last year, I've since amassed a collection of site log-ins the size of a pulp romance novel, and despite my youthful brain, remembering all of them is clearly impossible. A solution I've been using for some months is Roboform, which is a small piece of software that will let you keep your user names and passwords safely tucked away, combined with a browser plug-in that will automatically log you in to each site. This morning I've been playing around with a new feature from PassPack (review), which does the same thing sans software.
It's called 1-Click Auto Login, and as the name suggests, it will log you in to any site using the passwords you're stored in PassPack's password manager. All you have to do is enable the feature on your PassPack account, and drag a simple bookmarklet up to your browser's toolbar, or favorites folder. From then on, if you're visiting a site that's been added to your list of passwords, clicking the "PassPack It!" bookmarklet will autofill your log-in credentials. If you've got the one-click option enabled (it's off by default), it will go the next step and log you in automatically.
If you've got your login information setup, clicking the bookmarklet will automatically log you in to a site.
(Credit: CNET Networks)On the security side, since the bookmarklet pulls up your log-in credentials, and can be added to multiple browsers on multiple machines, you can deactivate it remotely and without having to from machine to machine. Likewise, you can reactivate all instances at once if you feel like locking things up when away from your machine.
There is one big snag when comparing this feature to Roboform. PassPack doesn't handle multiple log-ins for the same site with grace. When visiting a site with multiple accounts, PassPack will defer to the newer log-in for that site. Roboform, on the other hand, pops up to give you a small list of log-ins you can pick and choose from. I find this feature especially helpful when accessing one of my Google accounts, as I've got three I use in heavy rotation.
Clipperz, a competing online password management system, has a similar feature called "Direct Login" that closely emulates this multi-log-in list functionality. You can pick your login credentials from a sidebar which is summoned using a bookmarklet, and you're good to go. The service offers nearly the same feature set you get from PassPack, although Passpack has a few I find particularly helpful such as tagging and an offline mode that lets you access your passwords and make changes without an internet connection. There's a really great comparison chart put together by PassPack's CEO, that showcases some of the differences and similarities. If you're on the fence about which service fits your needs, it's a good read.
Which ever tool you choose, I'd highly recommend using one of these services to save and access your casual site log-ins if you've got more than a dozen. They're extremely helpful when it comes to accessing sites you signed up for months ago. As for financial services (banks, credit cards, and so on) and e-mail accounts with sensitive information, you're better off using your noggin.
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