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Personal/Private Workshop

Purpose of the workshop:

Most people need a way to keep up with multiple passwords, various accounts of various types, credit card information, etc. These personal accounts and information need to be secured, yet available quickly. In addition, sometimes they need to be searchable--you need to find something quickly without manually searching through a lot of similar-purpose records. Finally, you may want to share and synchronize the data with someone else, e.g., your spouse.

That's what this workshop is for. You'll cut down to one ID and one password you have to remember. The data will be encrypted using your own personal password. Other than that, it will be stored just like any other ITSBITS® Catapult Garage configuration file in the garage.

While no one can fully guarantee the security of your data, the fact that it needs your ID/password to decrypt the data certainly helps.

Start the Workshop

When you select the "Personal/Private" tab the workshop will be displayed. You'll immediately note that only the login fields are enabled. Menu options are not enabled and no data is displayed at all. You'll also notice that there's a timer below the login-area showing how long (in seconds) this form will remain up before it disappears. There will be a notice reminding you about this time limit further below the login area.

First Time Workshop Is Used

The first time into the workshop, you should enter an ID/password combination you'll be able to remember and happy to use to secure your information. NOTE: use an 8-character password and include alpha (A-Z, a-z), numeric (0-9) and exclamation point (!) characters. (Example, "Nellie" could become "Nell1e1!" to build a secure password. The system will try to find a configuration file appropriate for your ID/password combo, but it won't yet exist, so you'll see an error message. Notice that the last thing the message says is that if this is the first time you've run the workshop, you should simply ignore the message. Click on the "OK" button to continue.

Add A Record

Once you do this, the workshop will go to an "ADD MODE OPERATION" screen with the toolstrip and menu items enabled and a setup for data entry that looks something like the one shown below:

On this toolstrip, the red-plus icon is for "ADD" the Arrow-icon is for "Change" and the Skull/crossed-bones is for delete. The diskette is for save and the green door is the way out, or "Exit." Hover over any of these and you will be told what it's for.



Data fields

As you look at the ADD-MODE screen, you'll see the components that make up an entity's record.

  • Name of the entity -- (Required entry) Just use a name that you can quickly recognize. As an example, if you carry an XYZ VISA credit card, you might just use the name XYZ Card, or you might elect to use the entire string "XYZ VISA CREDIT CARD"--it's up to you.
  • UserID -- if there's a user ID for this entity, put it in here
  • Password -- if there's a password for this entity, it goes here
  • Account Number -- Put in your account number (if any) with this entity
  • Phone Number -- Their main contact phone number goes here.
  • Notes -- Whatever your heart desires and you think you'll need.
  • Their website -- If the entity has a website where you can do most/all business, put it in here, e.g., www.ITSBITS.com
  • Expires-on date -- If the account has an expiration date sometime in the future, select that date and put it in here.
  • In your wallet item -- OK, this is a very important point. Some of the things you'll put in this file are items that would be lost or stolen along with your wallet (or purse, maybe.) Check these items as you enter them. This way, if your wallet should be lost or stolen, if you have your computer, you'll have a quick point of reference with phone numbers and websites to let you know who to call to cut off accounts. (Credit card accounts only carry a $50 liability if stolen, BUT if the bank wants to be sticky about it, that's from the time you notify them, so remember to do it as soon as you know you've lost the cards.)

    You'll also notice a checkbox on the left that lets you limit the displayed list of entities to the wallet items if you so desire. Just check or uncheck it to select (or not) the wallet items.

Once you have entered the data for an item, just click the "OK" button, to make the actual addition. Notice that only the entity name is required. You could leave all the rest blank, though why you would do that is unknown. You can also stop an addition in mid-stream by clicking the Cancel or "STOP" button should you desire to do so.

Once you've clicked the OK button, you'll see the item added in the list of "Known Entities."

Anytime you add an entity, you'll go through the same procedure. The only difference will be that you can click the red "plus" icon or use the menu item for UPDATE>>ADD to initiate the activity.

Change/Delete Records

In a similar manner, you can click on the Green-arrow icon or use the menu option for "UPDATE--CHANGE" to initiate a change activity. If you don't have an item highlighted in the list when you do this, you'll need to double-click on an item in the list of known entities so that it comes up. You can change any field in an entity's record as needed.

And, finally, you can click on the "skull-and-crossed-bones" icon or use the menu option for "UPDATE--DELETE" to initiate a delete activity. If you don't have an item highlighted in the list when you do this, you'll need to double-click on an item in the list of known entities so that it comes up. CAUTION: Once an item is deleted, it is deleted. You can restore the configuration and get it back, but that's all you can do. That might mean other changes--those made since the configuration was backed up--are lost.

Now, you've seen most of what this workshop actually offers. If you go out and look at the file on disk, you'll find your data is encrypted. Your password is required to decrypt it. You also have an "EXIT" button that will close the workshop. Additionally, you'll find there a timer for the item-details-group of information. Whenever that time expires, the entity's detail-view will disappear. There's also a timer for the entire form--it's used to close the form after a given time. For security reasons, if you're in a place where other people might access your computer, you'll want to keep these times short and be sure to try to remember to use the EXIT button if you leave the computer.

Configuration Menu

You'll find on the configuration menu that you have an option to set both the delay times just mentioned. If you work where there's no worry about other people accessing your computer, you can always set these two timers at some very large value--say 99999. If you don't work in a place where your computer is truly private, we recommend that you use this trick only after thinking about its security implications for your data.

Now we come to a special feature for the workshop. Due to the nature of the data involved, you may want to share it with someone else, e.g., your spouse. You may also want to make a backup of your configuration data on a different computer so that if your hard drive dies you know you'll have the up-to-date file.

To do either of these, click on the CONFIGURATION menu. There you'll see the option for an optional Backup Path and for an optional Share Path. Clicking on either of these will bring out a box asking you for the file path to be used. It's a standard box with a browse button to help you find the path you want. If you are specifying a Share Path, you'll then be asked--just to be sure--which configuration file to use--the normal one (on your hard drive) or the shared one. If you are actually sharing the data with someone else, be sure to select the option to use the shared configuration path. (Just as a sideline note, the normal backup option is not changed--it still backs up your configuration file(s) on your own hard drive.) When you're setting up such a share with someone, have the share path on each computer point to the other computer: this will keep the 2 machines' files synchronized for you.

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ITSBITS® is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as the property of IHS, Incorporated. ITSBITS® Catapult Garage, all tools, workshops, related software, and documentation, regardless of medium, is ©2007 by IHS, Incorporated...all rights under all applicable copyright laws reserved by IHS, Incorporated.