Security

World Password Day 2020

May 7, 2020 by Ken

It’s once again World Password Day today — a day to promote better password habits. As we’ve been in the business of protecting personal and business information for over 23 years, we often get asked for advice on passwords, which usually looks something like:

1. Create strong passwords or passphrases (at least 14 characters with a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation — it should not be something easy to guess or unaltered from a dictionary.
2. Use a different password for each account (easy with eWallet’s built-in password generator)
3. Use a password manager — eWallet ® of course!
4. Use multi-factor authentication with cloud/server accounts that support it (and eWallet can store backup factor info too)

But today let’s focus on some of the other important but related questions we receive:

• What should I use for my wallet password?
• How can I backup the information in my wallet?
• What if something happens to me?

Wallet password

Your wallet password essentially protects all the passwords and other private information you store in your wallet. This password needs to follow the same rules for the passwords outlined above with one major difference: you need to remember it. Although a password like N6Y@300q3&62^# would be a great one where eWallet is storing it for you, for your wallet password, you may want something a bit easier to remember! The trick here is to create a password or passphrase that you can remember, but would be difficult for someone else to guess. If you like you can use eWallet’s hint feature to set a hint for the password; again you’d want it to be something useful to you but not to anyone else.

Note about biometrics

Biometrics (for example Face ID on an iPhone or fingerprint unlock on an Android device) can be a very convenient shortcut for not having to enter a long passphrase on a tiny keyboard every time you want to unlock your wallet. There are many things that can essentially deactivate the biometrics though, so it’s no permanent substitute for remembering your password. If you use eWallet on a Mac or PC as well as a mobile device, then typing your password on a full screen keyboard can help with the muscle memory to remember your very important wallet password.

Backing up information

Like any important digital file, you typically want your wallet file backed up in case of damage or loss of your computer or mobile device. eWallet gives you several options for saving your wallet files to another location in case something happens to your mobile device or computer. You can also configure synchronization to automatically save your wallet to multiple locations, effectively backing it up. Some of our desktop users have told us they periodically print out their wallet (or part of their wallet) and place the “paper backup” in secure storage.

What if something happens to me?

If something were to happen to incapacitate you, you might want other key people to have access to your personal wallet file. This means two things: they will need access to the file itself, and they will need the wallet password as well. One way to handle this would be to give your spouse, relative, or someone else that your trust access to your wallet, thereby giving them access to your important information if they need it.

Thanks for listening

Just a reminder that eWallet is available for the Android (phones and tablets), iPhone/iPad, Mac and Windows platforms.

Need more info? We’re here to help — just contact us!

From all of us at Ilium Software, we hope you, your family, and your friends are safe and healthy.

World Password Day 2019

May 2, 2019 by Ken

It’s World Password Day today — a day to promote better password habits. As we’ve been in the business of protecting personal and business information since 1997, we often get asked for advice on passwords, so here’s some best practices that can help:

1. Create strong passwords or passphrases (at least 14 characters with a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation — it should not be something easy to guess or unaltered from a dictionary.
2. Use a different password for each account (easy with eWallet’s built-in password generator)
3. Use a password manager — eWallet ® of course!
4. Use multi-factor authentication with accounts that support it (and eWallet can store extra factor info too)

eWallet’s built-in password generator can help you generate random, long, complicated passwords for all your accounts, and of course it stores them for you so you don’t have remember them.

eWallet’s AutoPass feature will fill in the username and password for you on most sites. And with eWallet’s built-in SyncPro engine, you can sync your digital eWallet files between your devices and computers using the cloud or a local Wi-Fi network.

eWallet is available for the Android, iPhone/ iPad, Mac and Windows platforms.

Need more info? We’re here to help — just contact us!

eWallet is a registered trademark of Ilium Software, Inc.

World Password Day

May 5, 2016 by Ken

Did you know it’s World Password Day today? …In addition to Cinco de Mayo of course!

We often get asked for advice on passwords, so here’s some best practices that can help:

1. Create strong passwords or passphrases (at least 12 characters with a mix of uppercase, lowercase, numbers and punctuation — it should not be something easy to guess or unaltered from a dictionary.
2. Use a different password for each account (easy with eWallet’s built-in password generator)
3. Use a password manager — eWallet of course!
4. Use multi-factor authentication with accounts that support it (and eWallet can store extra factor info too)

eWallet’s built-in password generator can help you generate random, long, complicated passwords for all your accounts, and of course it stores them for you so you don’t have too. And with eWallet’s built-in SyncPro engine, you can sync your digital eWallet files between your devices and computers using the cloud or a local WiFi network. And since eWallet is available on Android, iPhone/ iPad, Mac and Windows, we should have you covered.

Need more info? We’re here to help — just contact us!

eWallet GO! LastPass Converter Available

May 10, 2011 by Marc

By popular request, we just released an update to the eWallet GO!™ Conversion Utility\* that lets you easily move data exported from LastPass into eWallet GO!

It’s easy to do! Just export the LastPass data and save it into a text file, then run through the Conversion Utility wizard. That’s it! The utility does all the rest!

We hope this helps those of you who were looking for a solution like this!

For more information about eWallet GO! click here. To access the eWallet GO! Conversion Utility click here. To learn more about converting to eWallet GO! from LastPass, click here.

\* Previously known as the Wallet Transfer Utility

eWallet 7.0 - Updates and Answers

November 30, 2009 by Marc

I’m in the middle of a major software release right now so I’ll make this quick. I apologize that I can’t respond to all your comments individually, but considering how many of them there are, that simply isn’t possible. So - let’s get started…

Thanks! First let me say thanks to everyone who posted their support. We really appreciate it and we are working very hard to live up to your expectations. The new release is a pretty big deal and I think you’ll all like it. In fact I think you’ll REALLY like it. So thanks for your kind words and we hope you like eWallet 7.0!

eWallet 7.0 Will Be Out Tuesday eWallet 7.0 will be out tomorrow morning. This was the planned release date all along and we’re sticking to it.

More after the jump!

Why Did iPhone Come Out First? Ask Apple! Our last update took 4 weeks to get approved. This one? 4 days. Seriously. We wanted them to come out pretty close (or at least have the desktop version out first) and we thought our timing was pretty good but once again Apple proved us wrong. What can I tell you - we’re at their mercy on this and we have absolutely zero control over when they release our software. It sucks. They should let us choose a date to go live once they approve it.

I Have to Pay to Upgrade? As it says in the update notes for iPhone version, the upgrade to eWallet 7.0 on desktop may be a paid upgrade if you purchased more than 90 days ago. The price is going to be our usual $10.00 upgrade price, but with this release you’re getting something extra as well. More on that tomorrow.

I Don’t Want to Pay to Upgrade! If you don’t want to upgrade, then you don’t have to. We’ll continue to support our previous versions just like we always have. Heck – we’ve got a couple of eWallet 2.0 users we still take calls from now and then. So if you fall outside the 90 days and you don’t want to pay to upgrade, feel free to keep using the previous version.

I Already Upgraded My iPhone and Don’t Want to Pay to Upgrade! I’m sorry. We made it extremely clear in the upgrade information that you may be required to purchase an upgrade to the desktop version. I’m very sorry if you didn’t read that before you upgraded. Update information really is very important and worth reading.Although Apple doesn’t provide you with any way to backup to an older version (although they should) there are some work-arounds out there in google searches. Here is one that Pierre posted in the blog comments here:

You can revert back to your iPhone e-wallet version 6. You need to look at your Recycle bin and check for ewallet.ipa. It should be 2.8meg. Delete your version 7 in iphone and itune. Double click ewallet.ipa and reconfigure sync. Back to normal.

Keep in mind that this is a non-supported function. I can make no promises about how well this will work. UPDATE: OK, so in talking to folks we discovered that our perfectly clear message was anything but. In fact it was a bit misleading. Please check out the NEXT blog post for an update on that - we’re working very hard on a solution to help out folks who are having trouble now or who don’t want to upgrade. Again, sorry about that! Just Send Me the Old Version If I send you the old version today, we’ll be kicked off the AppStore tomorrow and there won’t be an eWallet for iPhone. Apple won’t let us do that. Period. In fact they don’t even give us a way to get software onto your device outside of iTunes.

You Shouldn’t Charge For Upgrades! Not charging is not a sustainable business model for a product like eWallet. New sales alone don’t cover the costs for development of major changes in functionality. We have to charge for upgrades.

You Should Have There was lots of advice in the blog comments. Some constructive - some not. I can’t answer all of them here but we thought - carefully - through pretty much every idea you posted. For any number of reasons they wouldn’t work, with reasons ranging from the limits of the AppStore to economic suicide. We truly did choose what we believed was the best possible path for this process in an environment where we have less and less control over that very same process.

Mac? Mac? MAC!!?? I’ve got something for you - not exactly what you’re expecting but I think you’ll like it! Check back tomorrow!

No, Bob. "Password" Isn't a Good One.

July 16, 2009 by Ellen

Hi Twitter Management,

Correction: This post was originally meant to be tongue-in-cheek, where we would offer Twitter employees a free copy of eWallet to keep track of their passwords. It’s not an offer for the general public. It looks like you’re having a little problem with your passwords. I know you know that using “password” isn’t a good idea, but I imagine you’ve all probably been pretty busy lately.

We’ve got this program called eWallet - you may have heard of it. It not only lets you store passwords safely so that you don’t have to pick the ones anyone can remember - and hack - but it also has a built-in password generator so you don’t even have to think of one. It’s network compatible, so your trusted employees (though you might want to rethink them as well, from what I’ve been reading) can all use it, and it’s compatible with iPhone, iPod Touch, Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones.

I’d be happy to give you a copy! No charge - consider it thanks for giving us all yet another way to feed our internet addictions. Just get in touch with our Customer Service guys, and we’ll get you your copy.