AccessKeys is a password manager for secure storage of sensitive information such as passwords, credit card numbers, software keys and logins for email systems, web-shops and websites. All information is stored in a secure database for easy access.

Compared to most other similar systems AccessKeys is not a plug-in for web browsers but operates totally independent as a standalone program. This has advantage when storing non-browser related information, when several browsers are used on the same system and, most importantly, prevents loss of passwords when the browser i upgraded or uninstalled. It is also trivial to move the secure database to a new system or sharing (parts of) the information with others. For a program like AccessKeys, the most important point is security.

There are two sides of the security in AccessKeys:

The most obvious is that the information you store is really secure. we ensure that by encrypting all the sensitive information using the Twofish algorithm developed by Bruce Schneier et al with support for 256 bit keys. AccessKeys ships with a 56 bit key restriction which can easily be upgraded by the user, go here for details on this

The other side of security is to prevent accidental loss of all your passwords. This is achieved by allowing the user to (optionally) store a "master key" that can be used rescue a broken password database. This can reduce the security, if a hacker gets hold of the "master key", he can also open your database, but if the key is stored in a safe place (outside the computer!) reasonable security is maintained. After all, for most users the risk of having someone break into your home to find your key on a CD or on a piece of paper is minimal, while the risk of getting you computer hacked from the internet is very high. Hence, keys stored outside of your computer should be relatively safe, although you should consider this carefully.

Two versions of Accesskeys :

AccessKeys comes in two versions, a Basic version that is free for all non-commercial usage and a Pro-version with more features. When you first download AccessKeys, you automatically get the Pro version which will revert to the Basic version after 30 days. As soon as you register your version of AccessKeys all Pro-features are automatically activated again. The table below details the most important differences between the basic and the pro version:

Cross-Platform support:

To ensure full cross-platform support and high security, AccessKeys is written in 100% Java and utilizes standard techniques such as XML and HTML to store information outside the program itself. For example, if you look at an AccessKeys database in a word processor or a text editor you will see everything is stored in plain XML (text) but your passwords and secret notes are encrypted and impossible to read. We test all versions of AccessKeys on Microsoft Windows (Including 64 bit versions), Mac OS X and Linux but in theory AccessKeys should run in every system the has a Java Virtual Machine installed