Lost in the Online Wilderness!

As often as possible, I try to manage business with online tools and sites that can save me time or improve collaboration. I manage projects using Basecamp. I IM with our remote team members using Trillian. I log into email through any number of services. I VPN to my corporate office. I connect remotely with Outlook from anywhere. As much as I might hate it, I live and work online.

So, last week when I cleared my cookies during a basic disk cleanup, I was cursing myself for not protecting my passwords. I can't find my login to Basecamp. I only remember two of my three Trillian IM account IDs. I don't know the new password that IT gave me for Outlook. In other words, I'm lost in the online wilderness without a map or compass.

This week, I'm testing several services that offer tools to store, protect, and manage my user accounts and passwords for all of the different sites that I use.

I started with RoboForm, a password manager and form filler available to home and office users. While it is not an online service, RoboForm is a simple plugin to IE and other browsers so that when I type in typical forms, passwords, links and logins, RoboForm helps me manage the list.

With RoboForm, simply using links and login "teaches" RoboForm your favorites, logins, and passwords. RoboForm keeps a list of my links, and logs me in automatically. Now, the true test is if RoboForm can remember my passwords after I clear cookies. I've tested in on several sites, and so far, RoboForm keeps track of everything even if I screw up and clear all my passwords in Windows IE7.

Though I like to think that I'm savvy about security, I do occasionally see email that makes me think to call my bank or brokerage. Some of these Phishing scams, emails to scam you out of your login or account data, get quite sophisticated and believable. RoboForm fights Phishing scams by entering passwords only on matching websites, so the system won't pass your information to untrusted sources.

I'm still on the free trial period, but so far RoboForm looks like a product I will buy. It's got a great way to keep me organized against my future mistakes with passwords, and save me much frustration combing gigabytes of old emails looking for the right login!