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Comment by BadassFractal | Hacker News Reader

I completely agree with the sentiment of the post, I have to continuously go back to my KeePass database to lookup the more complicated passwords.

What's the simplest thing that could work to fix this problem once and for all? I get the impression that there simply isn't one.

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Public key cryptography. I don't know if it's the simplest solution, but it does fix the problem. You have a private key, which you keep SUPER safe (e.g. encrypted with a strong passphrase), and you distribute your public key to anyone who wants to be able to verify your identity.

I'd really like a portable device / managed service I can carry around that encodes my biometrics in a private key. I don't know if fingerprints or iris scanning would cut it, though as you'd want something that would hash reliably.

Maybe something more simple - a 2-step thing like Google's on my iPhone, except one that logs into multiple sites. That, or get 'Google login' widespread and have it as the auth middleware on other sites out there.

'Google login' is widespread as the auth middleware on other sites. At least the sites worth trusting your data too ;)

There's http://code.google.com/p/google-authenticator/ for SSH, http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/google-authenticator/ for wordpress, http://helpdesk.lastpass.com/security-options/google-authent... for lastpass etc. You can use all these implementations with the very same iPhone/Android/Blackberry authenticator app you use for Google

I use KeePass myself and because of its awesome auto-type/global hotkey I rarely need to go open it and look up credentials myself. Just add the windows' title to the auto-type list of the corresponding entry and you're off the hook.

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