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Of the Linux versions

1) mypasswordsafe is no longer maintained

2) password gorilla is not particularly fast

3) pwsafe is still in beta

Having said that, they all seem to work fine with no major issues. The last one is the most similar to the current Windows version.

I use MyPasswordSafe http://www.semanticgap.com/pws in Linux. It's compatible with the passwordsafe file format.

Another alternative is MyPasswordSafe, which is also compatible with files from PasswordSafe, and is written in C++ (uses Qt for the GUI).

It is in the Debian archives. Doesn't seem to have been changed for a few years, but still runs fine.

You can also use MyPasswordSafe (http://www.semanticgap.com/myps/) for Linux; it maintains compatibility with PasswordSafe files. It's in the repositories for most distros. I've used it for quite a while and it has performed beautifully.

Here is a "Password Safe" compatible program that runs natively in linux. Nice if you don't want to use WINE, and want to share a Password Safe database with Windows machines.

Is the solution a master password, with all of the potential problems that represents, or biometrics, or are we stuck with post-it notes and a call to the help desk?

Just use the right tool: MyPasswordSafe

There is also a GNOME or GTK tool that is similar, but I didn't like the features nearly as well. This thing will store your passwords in an AES encrypted file protected with (I believe) an arbitrary length passphrase (mine is about 100 characters). I believe that it similar to the password safe (or something like that) that comes with Mac OS X, but it has been a long time since I even had a look at it.

PasswordSafe is basically a GUI wrapped around an encrypted file such as you describe. Unfortunately, it's Win32 only, but there are a few portable solutions available.

Those back-up tapes should have been encrypted if they carried such important information on them. The way that that should have been done is typical to PK crypto systems: encrypt the key for a symetric cipher used to encrypt the data using the public keys of the people allowed access to the data. That way even if someone snagged the raw medium, the information would still have been safe[r].

So I now ask, why don't corps come standard with a PKI? The tech has been around for a decade or more.

- Nolan

Just install Password Safe http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/ and generate a new, random 20 character password (Hash That!) for each login. If you don't like Windows-only software, there's Password Gorilla http://www.fpx.de/fp/Software/Gorilla/ (runs everywhere), My Password Safe http://www.semanticgap.com/myps/ (Linux/Qt) or pwsafe http://nsd.dyndns.org/pwsafe/ (command line).

Don't forget to use a good, long passphrase as the database's Master Password.