Looking for a secure way to store files with sensitive information

[treeski]

I'm wondering if there is a secure way to store files with sensitive information. I have created so many online accounts with various user names and passwords that it's starting to get difficult to remember what's what. I was thinking of making a spreadsheet with user names/passwords through Microsoft Office Excel 2007.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for, but if other people know of ways to keep sensitive information on PCs secure... it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[fw2004]

What OS are you running?

I'm assuming that you have files for various users located all over your hard drive(s), and you want to protect one user's files from another.

If you use the networking login, each user has his/her own account with password.
Each user is assigned a set of folders where files are stored.
Only the administrator account has access to user's personal files, so as long as these files are stored in the default (My Documents) folder, they should be fairly secure.

You can set up additional security on the local machine if you are running one of the Professional versions (Win 2000 Professional, XP Pro, etc).
You can have even more security if the machine is part of a domain, but then you need a server running a server OS (Windows 2000 Server, 2003 Server, 2008 Server)

A bit more info on your issue would help to find the right solution for you.

FW

 

[LookinAround]

Using some form of an Encrypted File System (EFS) product is one possible solution. But a heads up!

While I don't have any "hands on" experience with using EFS, i do know one common mistake EFS users have made:
> You must use a special tool from the product vendor to backup your encryption keys (and store them separately from your file backups)
> OR, should your drive fail, you will never be able to recover/unencrypt your data from backups!

 

[mailpup]

WordPerfect happens to be my preferred word processing application. I keep a list of all my user names and passwords in a Wordperfect document and I protect that document with a password. It won't open without it. At work I use MS Office 2007 and WordPerfect. You can do the same in Word or Excel. It's built into the programs.

For Word 2007 or Excel 2007 open the document and click on Save As, Tools and then General Options.

 

[treeski]

Thanks much for the responses. mailpup's advice was actually exactly was I was looking for/hoping for. I had no idea that the various Office programs included such a feature!