(Click on the pictures to zoom in)
Many people are not even aware of the existence of an application called Keychain Access. This great tool is located in your Utility folder in the Applications directory. Keychain Access is a Mac OS X built in application to securely store your web and login information. I am going to show you how you can use this tool to best serve your interest.

Let’s paint the following scenario. How many websites do you access on a daily or weekly basis? I can bet you have an account with eBay. Maybe an account with Paypal to handle your transactions through eBay. But you probably have some money in a bank so let’s assume that you also have a bank account website that you access to pay your bills or manage other online banking transactions. In addition to these, you also probably have an email account with Yahoo or Hotmail; and when Gmail came out to outdo Yahoo and MSN, you probably decided to add an additional email account to your online portfolio.
And to finish, depending on your addiction to shopping you probably have gotten into some online shopping time to time, whether it be Amazon or BestBuy or something else. And chances are pretty good that you come back to all the sites listed above in a regular basis.

So how many accounts and passwords does this leave for you to remember? And do you feel that you have to choose between playing it unsecurely by using the same password for all or most of your accounts, or to often click the “forgot password” link because you have a hard time remembering your accounts and passwords. Well these days are over, because I have a solution to your problem.

Do you remember when you checked the box “Save My Password” on a website
so that you wouldn’t have to enter it again? Have you ever wondered where your
login credentials are stored in your computer? Well it is in your Keychain.

Role of Keychain:
But the point of this article is that this application has much more to offer than just storing your web login and passwords. It can also handle:
- web passwords
- secure notes
- certificates, etc.

There are many things to show you about this application but I am going to focus on the most useful and simple to use. (1) How to create a new keychain, (2) how to use Keychain to store your passwords, and (3) how to use Keychain to store your secure notes. You will need a password to unlock your keychain.

Prerequisites:
Any user account in Mac OS X has a default keychain called “login”.
If you want to save your website passwords and secure notes in your
computer, it is recommended to create a new keychain that is not
unlocked automatically when you login to your computer. This way even
if someone else has access to your machine with an admin account, the
person will not be able to unlock your keychain. Failure to do so will
result in all your credentials being stored in your default keychain,
which is okay, so long as no one else has access to your account.
[eminimall]
Warning: If you give your computer away or sell it to someone, at the minimum
wipe your user account. Reformatting the drive after erasing it, is probably more secure. But always make sure that you delete your keychain. Otherwise the new user who has admin access to your machine can retrieve all the saved passwords.

(1) How to create a new keychain

• 1. Launch the application Keychain Access located in Applications/Utilities
• 2. Choose File > New Keychain



• 3. Type a name and choose a location for the keychain, then click Create.
• 4. Type a password for the keychain. (For help in choosing a good

password, click the key button to the right of the Password field to
open the Password Assistant.)



• 5. To make the new keychain your default keychain, click Show
  Keychains, select your new keychain from the list, and choose File >
  Make Keychain (new keychain name) Default.

NB: New keychains are set to lock automatically. To change this setting, select the keychain in the Keychains list and choose Edit >”Change Settings for Keychain (new keychain name).”

Each keychain has many categories as you can see in the bottom left
corner of the Keychain application window. When you check “Save Password” in your browser or while accessing another application, Keychain will take care of storing your credentials in the correct category. For the purpose of creating your own password items and secure notes, only the internet and secure notes categories are relevant.

(2) How to use Keychain to store your passwords

• 1. Open Keychain Access, located in /Applications/Utilities.
• 2. Click Show Keychains if the Keychains list is not open, then
  select the keychain you want to use (if your keychain is locked, click
  the lock icon then enter your keychain password to unlock it).



• 3. Choose File > New Password Item.
• 4. Type a name or a website (if the password is associated with a website) for the Password Item in the field Keychain Item Name
• 5. Type a name or a website username (if you are creating this for a website) in the Account Name field.
• 6. Type the password you want to save in the Password box.



• 7. Click Add.

(3) How to create a new secure note to store sensitive information in
your keychain

• 1. Open Keychain Access, located in /Applications/Utilities.
• 2. Click Show Keychains if the Keychains list is not open, then
  select the keychain you want to use (if your keychain is locked, click
  the lock icon then enter your keychain password to unlock it).
  
• 3. Choose File > New Secure Note Item.



• 4. Type a name for the note in the field Keychain Item Name
• 5. Type the information you want to save in the Note box.
  
• 6. Click Add.

NB: Keychain has a nice feature that allows you to test how secure your password is as you type it. Click on the key icon on the right of the password box to use this feature.

I hope that now you have a better appreciation of the keychain access application. I hope this boosts your productivity. Do not hesitate to contact me at info@mostofmymac.com should you have any questions. Also I would appreciate if you could add your comment(s) below, Thanks.