|
Thursday, 31 May 2007 |
 Copernicus is a username and
password remembering software application that enables you to store all
your various internet login details in one convenient location. Rest
assured, it is totally free from spyware and adware which tend to haunt
this type of program.
Apart from it's ease of use, other benefits of Copernicus include the
fact that it doesn't cost you a cent, is open source, will work on most
modern computing platforms such as Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, and is
available in more than ten different languages.
Download security software: Copernicus 2.0.1
Developer: Tank Software
Copernicus is extremely easy to use - as you can see from the
screenshots listed on this page, all of your sites are listed on the
left hand side. If you click on one of those sites - the associated
login details (username, password and any other information you
require) are displayed on the left. Due to the fact many people have
multiple logins for a single site - you can even have several logins
associated with the one site and can browse the other ones by clicking
on the login drop down box, or clicking the shortcut for the next login
(denoted by the '>' symbol).
opernicus is well suited to a multi-user computer as each user can have
their own copernicus file where they store their logins. Like all Tank
Software programs, Copernicus strives to be highly customisable. You
can change the language that Copernicus uses to one of the many
included translations (there are over ten, including French, German,
Greek, Japanese, Russian and Spanish).
If you don't like the Look & Feel (a.k.a the GUI theme), you can
choose between the Kunststoff Java Metal theme (default, example at
top), your System default theme (Windows, example at bottom) the
standard Java theme or even a custom Java Look & Feel.
Using a program such as Copernicus raises several security concerns. Firstly is the possibility that the publisher of the software is malicious and is trying to steal your passwords. Secondly, someone could try and hack into your computer and get the passwords. Thirdly, a user of your computer could run the program and read the passwords.
To combat the first and second issues you can install a firewall on your computer which would prevent a program contacting any site on the Internet without your authorisation and will make it harder for hackers to get into your computer. For open source programs such as Copernicus - you can inspect the source code yourself if you are a programmer and compile your own version. To protect against the second and third points - you can encrypt the password data file (using Copernicus or another third party program) however that may mean you have to remember at least one password to access it in the first place. On some multi-user systems like Linux and Windows NT to prevent a fellow user from accessing your passwords, you can restrict file access to the copernicus data file.
Alternatively there is a very easy way to protect your passwords from all three security risks. And that is instead of storing your actual passwords, store a representation of them. For example - most users of copernicus use the same password for all their different services but use Copernicus to keep track of all the sites they are subscribed to and the different login names, email addresses etc. If this is the case then instead of actually storing your password you could store the text (main-pass) instead. If you have a highly secure password that you use for internet banking and can't write it down anyway you could store the text (netbanking-pass). This is how the author of Copernicus uses his software.
|
Security software 