Keychain Access can be found Inside every copy of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, and previous incarnations of Mac OS X, in the Applications/Utilities folder. Often neglected, Keychain Access is the tool for keeping personal information private.

Out of the box, Keychain Access functions as the utility that stores encrypted passwords system-wide. The cool thing about Keychain access is that it actually encrypts the passwords stored therein. So, if you have allocated a user password for your user account, any passwords that are 'remembered' within your user account's keychain are secured using your user account's password. Activating your user account using the user account password, effectively unlocks the passwords which are associated to the account. Effectively, working like a keychain with password strung along it.

Another cool use of Keychain Access is the ability to create secured notes... encrypted notes that provide a safe place to store personal information away from prying eyes. Its secure enough that even if the secured note is copied out, the access password will still be required to unlock the secured note. This same rule applies to keychains so that any keychains copied out from your machine will still require the original password before they can be unlocked and used - providing peace of mind.

Creating Secure Notes

More often than not most of us, in spite of the persistant warnings from our financial and academic institutions, still store a plethora of usernames, passwords and even bank account details and PIN numbers on our systems. Whilst, others proceed to ram out details of their lives, liaisons and rendezvous' using simple applications like TextEdit. Saving files in unprotected Rich Text Format (rtf).

For better security, Mac OS X's Secure Notes feature found within the Keychain Access application is recommended. Keychain Access can be found in your system's, Applications/Utilities folder.

Diagram 1.0, Keychain Access' main window

Select the, "New Secure Note Item" from within your Keychain Access' File menu (Diagram 1.1.) to create a new secure note.

Diagram 1.1, creating a new secure note

You will then be presented with a dialog box requiring that you append a name to your new secure note item and also a box to include your desired contents (Diagram 1.2).

Diagram 1.2, Keychain Access' secure note item dialog window

Clicking the "Add" button once you've finished entering the contents of your new secure note item will add it to your Keychain Access Secure Notes listing (Diagram 1.3). Note that during the secure note item creation process you were not prompted to enter a password to secure the item. This occurs because Keychain Access automatically appends your user's Keychain password to the secure note item.

Diagram 1.3, your new secure note item appears in the Secure Notes list of your Keychain Access' main window

To view secure note items, select the desired item from your Keychain Access Secure Notes listing and double click on it. You will then be confronted by a dialog box which requires you to check the "Show note" checkbox (Diagram 1.4).

Diagram 1.4, checking the "Show Note" checkbox opens access to your secure note item

When prompted for an access password, key in your user login password which has been automatically appended to your secure note item at the point of its creation. Be mindful to click the "Allow Once" button if you only want to view the selected secure note item once. Clicking the "Always Allow" will grant access to the secure note item every time the appropriate user is logged in, using the matching keychain password (Diagram 1.5).

Diagram 1.5, click "Allow Once" for better security