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==The Problem==

With the proliferation of online resources these days, you probably have many different usernames and passwords that you have to remember: banks, investment accounts, bill pay systems, credit card sites, email accounts, instant messenger accounts, photo sites, blogging tools - and countless others - all require a username and password to be able to access them. If you're like most people, you probably have only a few - or maybe just one or two - simple passwords you use for all of your accounts, because it's easier to remember just one or two than it is dozens. To make matters worse, the one or two passwords that you do use are probably fairly simple, like your dogs name, your birthday, or your spouse or child's name. The problem is, this is '''''incredibly risky'''''.

Maybe you do use unique passwords, and get around the problem of remembering them by saving them in your browser, or storing them in a spreadsheet or other file - which is very insecure - or even writing/printing them on a piece of paper and taping it to your computer display. Maybe you even use one of the many [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_manager password managers] that are available. But now you've centralized your passwords and access to them becomes difficult while at work, a friend's, or a public internet terminal. You can't get to your passwords without carrying them around or [http://www.passwordsafe.com/ publishing them on the internet]. Some people even carry a USB keychain with their passwords wherever they go. How inconvenient. And [http://www.passwordsafe.com/ publishing them on the internet?] Yikes! We need not even mention the security risks inherent with that solution. Even if you trust the company storing the passwords, you can be sure every hacker in the world is drooling over the prospect of accessing their database.

Ideally, you should use a unique, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_strength#Strong_passwords strong password] for each of your accounts - especially the ones that contain sensitive information, like your bank or your investment brokerage account - but what about all of your other accounts? They may not contain information that is quite as sensitive as your bank, but it is still your private information, and none of anyone else's business.

"But only a genius could memorize so many unique passwords!", you say? Well, read on...

== The Solution ==

What if you could use passwords that are as unique as fingerprints for each and every one of your accounts, yet not have to remember them? PasswordMaker allows you to do just that. By using complex mathematical formulae, called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_function hashing algorithms], PasswordMaker outputs the same unique passwords for you each and every time, provided you give it the same input. And these passwords ''are unique'' across the globe (providing they are of sufficient length).

Don't write them down on sticky notes for others to find; no, PasswordMaker calculates them for you over and over again -- as needed -- without storing them so they can't be stolen. And if you use more than one computer (for example, one at work and one at home), it's child's play to synchronize them. There's even an [http://passwordmaker.sourceforge.net/passwordmaker.html on-line version] for times when you are at a public computer and can't install any software.

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The old PasswordMaker website can be found [http://passwordmaker.sourceforge.net/ here]. Please note it is no longer maintained but is there for archival purposes.