Anyone know of a small device with an LCD for securely storing passwords?

August 29, 2008 6:14 AM

Anyone know of a small device with an LCD for securely storing passwords?

An executive at my company is looking for a standalone device (not Blackberry password keeper) that he can carry around that will securely store all his passwords. He is looking for a portable password “keeper” with LCD. He is looking to store all his personal passwords, pin #’s, cc info and so on and to be able to view them without a computer present, hence the LCD requirement. Also it needs to be encrypted so if he loses it, no one can access the data. I haven't been able to find anything. Anyone ever heard of such a thing?

posted by paulyballs to technology (14 comments total)

how about a palm zire. It has a memo function that could be used, and data can be "hidden" via password, about $150.
posted by HuronBob at 6:24 AM on August 29, 2008

A PalmPilot or Zaurus with suitable encryption.
posted by orthogonality at 6:26 AM on August 29, 2008

Yes, google "secure encryption palm" and buy a cheapo old PDA from ebay. Make sure you get good encryption, look for something like AES or Blowfish.
posted by katrielalex at 6:29 AM on August 29, 2008

The mandylion password manager might do what he wants, but it has quite limited storage space and I imagine typing things in is a pain. It's the only device I have ever seen that is close to what you describe.

I know you said he didn't want a blackberry password manager, but for anyone looking for a password safe type program KeePass is excellent and free [windows, linux, pocketpc, j2me, blackberry, and palm (sort of)].
posted by samj at 7:21 AM on August 29, 2008

Keyring for Palm OS is the reason I still have a Palm M505.
posted by scruss at 7:28 AM on August 29, 2008

(you didn't specify cheap)

1Password is a fantastic secure data manager for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and it integrates with the (Mac) desktop client.

Apple is allegedly releasing new iPods on Sept. 9, including a price drop, so it's something to consider.
posted by mkultra at 7:31 AM on August 29, 2008

How about the back of a business card put in the executive's wallet? Unless he regularly loses his wallet its very safe. Its security guru Bruce Schneier's preferred solution.
posted by shothotbot at 7:53 AM on August 29, 2008

Yup, a Palm m5** with Keyring would be pretty much perfect.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 8:42 AM on August 29, 2008

Blackberry (phone & e-mail included for monthly price)
posted by ijoyner at 9:08 AM on August 29, 2008

Oops, just noticed this needed to be standalone
posted by ijoyner at 9:08 AM on August 29, 2008

Shoot -- I opened this thread to suggest my setup, a Palm m515 with Keyring, but I see scruss and Zed_Lopez beat me to it. If only someone would write a desktop conduit to Keyring databases that a) supports the Keyring 2.0 format, b) allows editing (not just viewing), and c) runs on Windows, my world would be complete.
posted by harkin banks at 9:11 AM on August 29, 2008

How important are these passwords (how unstealable do they need to be)? There's really no such thing as "secure password storage" other than in one's mind. I have many, many passwords and none of them are written or recorded anywhere. Instead, I use an algorithm to generate rememberable passwords. I don't use important dates or the names of family or pets. You gotta make up your own algorithm.
posted by neuron at 2:30 PM on August 29, 2008

KeePass on a flash drive or SD card works great, but I don't have a computerless device for you, so I'll second the algorithm.
Something contextual. Let's say the algorithm is to add "schwa" to whatever site/device/context the password is for; his online banking pw = bankschwa, mail account pw = mailschwa, airline site pw = planeschwa, etc.
The good news is that algorithm passwords are easy to remember; the bad news is that cracking the algorithm effectively cracks all your passwords. Best you can do is combine two or more unrelated algorithms (sum the numeric value of the letters in the context first, then add schwa) and cross your fingers.
posted by bartleby at 5:10 PM on August 29, 2008

A Nokia N800/N810 with KeepassX would do the trick, though it would be overkill.
posted by malaprohibita at 4:59 AM on September 1, 2008