OSXFAQ Mac OS X Tip-of-the-Day  

Create a second Keychain for sensitive passwords.

Keychain Access stores all the passwords you have asked be remembered. The application lives in Applications:Utilities, and your Keychain itself is to be found in Library:Keychains in your home folder.

You may create an additional Keychain (or several) and place certain passwords in the new Keychain. Why? Your default Keychain is opened when you log in, and remains open. This is convenient, but may be not what you want for the more sensitive passwords like bank accounts. You have two options - either don't add such passwords to Keychain Access but remember them, or add them to a more secure keychain.

Create a new keychain by running Keychain Access and selection menu 'File - New Keychain...'. Give it a name, navigate to Library:Keychains, and hit the 'Create...' button. Choose a good secure password.

The new keychain will *not* open when you log in, but instead you will be prompted for the Keychain password when an application attempts to retrieve a saved password. Additionally, it will automatically re-lock after 5 minutes of inactivity, or when the computer sleeps.

How does one save passwords in the new Keychain? When you first give a password to an application and check 'Add to keychain' or 'Remember this password in my keychain', it will be saved in the default Keychain. To move the new password into another Keychain simply drag and drop:

You may have to type the password for the 'drag from' Keychain as well as the 'drop onto' Keychain. Remember, you are always typing Keychain passwords, not the password you are adding/moving.

Enjoy !! :-)

Panther 10.3.4

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