passwordsFAST Compact Offline Password Keeper (Encrypted)

This is the second Fastpass I’ve purchased. The first was their older model. After years of use the arrow keys became difficult to use. I like the keys on this newer version much better. The only issue I’m having is that the blue color on the keys is darker than the previous model which can make them harder to read in low light.Overall I like having a password tool that can’t be hacked because it is not connected to anything. Entering your data can be time consuming but once entered you are good to go.I would recommend this product and bought both this model and the prior one for other family members.

I had high hopes for this product even though the cost was low and the data entry tedious, because my requirements were modest. However, there are other limitations that prevent me from recommending it.1) It’s made in China, so there’s the possibility of backdoors, should this fall into the wrong hands.2) The password key to unlock the device is limited to eight characters, even though entries can store 32 character passwords.3) With usage over time, it’s likely the keys to unlock the device will wear, giving clues to the password.4) Not all valid password characters are available: braces, brackets, tildes, back tick, equal sign, and back slash are missing.5) Some of the characters have weird representations. 96=%. 8c=&.6) However, the real deal breaker is that hackers have unlimited amount of retries to break in. When the number of password unlock failures exceed the limit, it just locks you out for a period of time (but if you don’t want to wait, take out the battery and reinstall it). The correct behavior would be to clear all the entries and reinitialize the device to factory settings.

This is a credit-card-sized secure password store, featuring a keyboard and LCD display. It uses encryption to protect against hardware probing attacks, more on this later. The small size makes it portable, but (breaks my heart to say it) it isn't really rugged enough to carry in your pocket; mine cracked after a couple weeks despite being in a protective case. The keyboard and LCD are big enough to use if your vision and dexterity is good, and I don't see how it could be made much better without compromising on size. Older folks with arthritis and poor vision may struggle. The LCD contrast is adjustable in the settings; some of the reviewers here dissing the diplay seem unaware of that.If you intend to carry this in your pocket, I recommend protecting the top side with a metal plate (of the sort used to cover electrical wiring, for example), or the display will crack. A knapsack or ladies' purse should be fine as it is.The encryption feature requires you to enter a key (separate from your password) that you don't have to remember, and you only type it in once the first time you use it. This is doubtless the "session key" for the encryption algorithms and it is important to get maximum information entropy to keep the encryption strong. I recommend going to random-dot-org to get a truly random key for this. The internal electronics contain a 32 kilobye EEPROM and a Nuvoton N78E366 microcontroller with an 8051 core. The encryption session key, logically I presume, is stored in the internal flash, but the changing password data (encrypted) in the external EEPROM. This arrangement hardens the device against someone reading out the EEPROM (with a $35 Arduino, for example). The processor, though, is not a security-hardened device, so someone willing to spend $50,000 could probably crack it with microprobing, overclocking, or a side-channel attack. If forensic labs, spy agencies, or professional Bitcoin thieves are part of your threat model, you will need more than this, but if hooligans and opportunistic thieves are your concern, for twenty bucks you get much better security than a paper notebook or pricier competing models that appear to be crackable with electronic hobbyist tools.

I like this device a lot! I've got a good many years of age on me, so it took using it a little while before I finally caught on to the instructions. The instructions weren't hard to understand, it's just that I'm slow catching on at my age. If you're a little older you'll understand what I mean. Anyway, the device is compact, just slightly larger than a credit card and about as thick as 3 or 4 credit cards. It will easily fit in a shirt pocket or pants pocket and there's no problem programming your Usernames and Passwords. You can easily scroll through them to check on a forgotten password or you can enter a couple of letters of the site, such as: "19" from "19th CENTURY BANK" and it will find it for you, although I hope that's NOT your bank! Up to this point I would recommend it to anyone. BUT, here comes the rub. The 8 and the 0 are pretty much undiscernible. There is a totally unnecessary mark through the zero that makes it look like an 8. So, if you've forgotten a password that contains an 8 or a 0 or both and you find it in PasswordsFast you might still have to go with the Trial and Error method before you get into the website. For Example, you have a password that contains: 1908. In PasswordsFast the 8 and the 0 look alike. So, is it 80, 08, 00, 88. You might get locked out before you try all the possibilities. I would give it two thumbs up were it not for that one problem. In my eyes, that's reason enough not to recommend it. You might not be quite as particular about that problem. If it doesn't sound like a big deal to you, then this Password Manager would be hard to beat. It really is a top notch Password Manager. If you think you wouldn't run into the problem I described then the PasswordsFast is a good choice. I'm not trying to badmouth an otherwise good product.

I love the idea, but I don't think this particular product is very good. This unit is very small, the keys are small. And, while the directions were very good and the unit appeared to be very easy to use, it was either slow or unresponsive to my touch. I am returning it.