Keep Your Browser Safe with a Password Manager by Kevin Dwinnell

One of the things I got to do over the holidays was dial up the strength of my passwords across the web.  This was a gift that resulted from the Gawker hack.

I’d been casually improving the strength of the passwords I used, but using very little variety among the passwords.  I was an easy target.  So, when the Gawker notes went out, followed by Amazon’s note and so on.  So, I decided to take my security more seriously.  I explored creating a system that allowed for unique passwords, but was memorable enough that I could still keep them in my head.  But, all the typing quickly got old.

Then a note from a team member who linked to this post “Jesus Christ, Use a Password Manager Already” and it got me looking into password managers.

As a quick overview, there are three basic categories:

• Desktop – stores your passwords on your computers hard drive.
• Portable – For your mobile device whether it’s your smart phone or thumb drive.
• Web based – Online password manager.

What you quickly discover is that each method has its own strengths (platforms or uses where it excels) and weaknesses (where it’s vulnerable). Each also creates additional overhead in terms of what you need to do to access secure sites (cut and paste, authenticate manually).  Don’t get overwhelmed and do nothing.  Choose a path that fits best with your computing habits.  You’re online security will be better for it.

I’m giving KeePassX a try.  It’s a free open source password manager. It keeps my passwords in an encrypted database with either a master password, a key file or both. You only have to remember one single master password or select the key file to unlock the whole database. The databases are encrypted using secure encryption algorithms currently known (AES and Twofish) which is great.  And it’s available across platforms, so whether you’re on Windows, Mac or Linux, you’re covered.

If you don’t want to get a feel for what others are using, check out Lifehacker’s Five Best Password Managers from their Hive Five efforts.

Good luck and safe browsing.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: browser, linux, mac, password, password manager, security, Windows | No Comments »

B/T Enters Beta Phase with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer – How to Avoid Single Distribution Risk by Kevin Dwinnell

You always want to avoid single points of failure. A variation on this theme was raised on “This Week in Startups,” a live show and podcast where serial entrepreneur Jason Calacanis brings on accomplished guests to discuss and help startups. (I’m referencing Episode 15 with Roelof Botha.) A caller was seeking advice since his Facebook application lost distribution due to a policy change by Facebook. He saw his business evaporate.

Today, Brand Thunder announced the beta launch of the Internet Explorer Boom!. This is not just a huge milestone in our ability to serve our clients and end users, it’s another step toward mitigating risk in our whole business. Here are a few thoughts on single dependency and how it shaped getting us to this point.

Eco-systems and Platforms

When we started building on Firefox, addons.mozilla.org (AMO) offered an ideal proving ground for concept and technology. It offered an aggregated audience predisposed to enhancing their browsing experience with add-ons. Other companies built their businesses here as well (StumbleUpon, Clipmarks, Delicious). Facebook is that environment for social applications.

Any time you’re beholden to a single entity, there’s the risk for a single point of failure should something in that relationship change. Mozilla being open source and community driven isn’t like other organizations, but it’s still serves a segment of the Internet population. To meet the needs of our clients, we need to serve as wide an audience as possible and that service is on other browser platforms.

Channels to Market

AMO is a tremendous help in getting our product to end users, but it’s not our only source of distribution. Since we built custom browsers for major brands, we had the advantage of distributing through their sites and their fan sites as well. For successful social applications, they look to Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and leverage their Viral Loop. Other browser extensions build out to IE, Safari, Opera, Chrome and so on.

We weren’t limited to a single channel, but now we extend that even further through access to IEAddons.com and sites devoted to Windows downloads. And since we’re unique the visual immersion we bring to the browser experience, there’s an opportunity to satisfy and under-served market.

The Internet Explorer Highlights

So, we’ve improved our position in a couple key areas for our business and we’re thrilled about that. But, here’s why we think our clients and end users will be excited as well.

Internet Explorer has never allowed this much visual customization in this simple a process.

While not an exact replication of our Firefox product, the key elements of graphical design, content & functional integration and multi-media sidebars remain intact.

Our clients can now easily reach 90% of users with an add-on that delivers an extreme makeover through the browser they are using today.

Our prospective end users don’t have to first migrate to a new browser if they’re not on it already.

The story about how a little download can add a lot of Boom! to a browser just became a whole lot bigger.

Posted in Commentary, News | Tags: brand thunder, Branded Browser, browser boom, custom browser, Facebook, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Roelof Botha, Safari, Windows | No Comments »