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Apple's Keychain Access

foxjwill

Student
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Joined
Jul 11, 2008
Messages
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I have a mac as my home computer, and I'm contemplating using apple's keychain access application to store confidential info like my FAFSA PIN, checking account number, etc. However, I have absolutely no idea where to go to find unbiased information about (a) its safety and functionality and (b) whether it would be a good idea to have such data centralized in the first place.

Now, if I were the only one having access to my computer, I probably wouldn't think twice about going ahead and using it. However, I currently have a home network, and in a couple months I'll have a wireless network I'll be setting up with my roommate at college, and I'll might be allowing some people in neighboring rooms access to the network. Are standard wireless network security protocols enough to allay worry about having centralized data?
 
Not a clue, I'm afraid.

However, very cool that you're about to start college.

Any idea what you'll be majoring in?
 
foxjwill said:
I have a mac as my home computer, and I'm contemplating using apple's keychain access application to store confidential info like my FAFSA PIN, checking account number, etc. However, I have absolutely no idea where to go to find unbiased information about (a) its safety and functionality and (b) whether it would be a good idea to have such data centralized in the first place.

Now, if I were the only one having access to my computer, I probably wouldn't think twice about going ahead and using it. However, I currently have a home network, and in a couple months I'll have a wireless network I'll be setting up with my roommate at college, and I'll might be allowing some people in neighboring rooms access to the network. Are standard wireless network security protocols enough to allay worry about having centralized data?
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There are other products out there that *might* be more secure but really it's all down to how secure your computer is. It could be that this discussion tells you enough. If you want to discuss this in detail, can I suggest MacOSX-Support?
 
Another way to store confidential info on a Mac (without 3rd party software) is on an encrypted disk image. The options are 128-bit AES and 256-bit AES. Looking at the Wikipedia article on AES (can't link, too newbie) it seems pretty secure, as long as you choose a strong password.
 
jwwalker said:
Another way to store confidential info on a Mac (without 3rd party software) is on an encrypted disk image. The options are 128-bit AES and 256-bit AES. Looking at the Wikipedia article on AES (can't link, too newbie) it seems pretty secure, as long as you choose a strong password.
Click to expand...
I haven't tried that but I think it would work very well. One plus would be that you could put any sort of document in the image file. You would then be free to use whatever file type you prefer without worrying about its own built-in encryption/password protection being weak.
 
foxjwill said:
I have a mac as my home computer, and I'm contemplating using apple's keychain access application to store confidential info like my FAFSA PIN, checking account number, etc. However, I have absolutely no idea where to go to find unbiased information about (a) its safety and functionality and (b) whether it would be a good idea to have such data centralized in the first place.

Now, if I were the only one having access to my computer, I probably wouldn't think twice about going ahead and using it. However, I currently have a home network, and in a couple months I'll have a wireless network I'll be setting up with my roommate at college, and I'll might be allowing some people in neighboring rooms access to the network. Are standard wireless network security protocols enough to allay worry about having centralized data?
Click to expand...

There are two components to this: (1) how safe is Keychain in storing the information on disk; (2) how safe is this information transmitted over a (wireless) network.

I don't know about (1); (2) depends on both the application used and the network protocols.

Wireless networks have "encryption", but it really isn't up to current standards. You'd really want the application used (Keychain Access?) to use safe encryption itself, to guard from others eavesdropping.
 
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