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| Download Copernicus | [Cross-platform (tar.gz)] [Windows Installer (exe)] |  |
| Resources: [View Documentation (HTML)] [Download Documentation (PDF)] [juk website] |
Copernicus is a username and password remembering program that enables you to store all your various internet login details in one convenient location. Rest assured, it is totally free from spyware and adware which tend to haunt this type of program. Apart from it's ease of use, other benefits of Copernicus include the fact that it doesn't cost you a cent, is open source, will work on most modern computing platforms such as Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, and is available in more than ten different languages.
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Features
Copernicus is extremely easy to use - as you can see from the screenshots listed on this page, all of your sites are listed on the left hand side. If you click on one of those sites - the associated login details (username, password and any other information you require) are displayed on the left. Due to the fact many people have multiple logins for a single site - you can even have several logins associated with the one site and can browse the other ones by clicking on the login drop down box, or clicking the shortcut for the next login (denoted by the '>' symbol). Copernicus is well suited to a multi-user computer as each user can have their own copernicus file where they store their logins. Like all Tank Software programs, Copernicus strives to be highly customisable. You can change the language that Copernicus uses to one of the many included translations (there are over ten, including French, German, Greek, Japanese, Russian and Spanish). If you don't like the Look & Feel (a.k.a the GUI theme), you can choose between the Kunststoff Java Metal theme (default, example at top), your System default theme (Windows, example at bottom) the standard Java theme or even a custom Java Look & Feel. As stated above, Copernicus is accessible by most computer users supporting many different languages and operating systems. |
Digitally enhanced image of a solar eclipse showing the Sun's corona.
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 Native look & feel in Windows
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Security
Using a program such as Copernicus raises several security concerns. Firstly is the possibility that the publisher of the software is malicious and is trying to steal your passwords. Secondly, someone could try and hack into your computer and get the passwords. Thirdly, a user of your computer could run the program and read the passwords. To combat the first and second issues you can install a firewall on your computer which would prevent a program contacting any site on the Internet without your authorisation and will make it harder for hackers to get into your computer. For open source programs such as Copernicus - you can inspect the source code yourself if you are a programmer and compile your own version. To protect against the second and third points - you can encrypt the password data file (using Copernicus or another third party program) however that may mean you have to remember at least one password to access it in the first place. On some multi-user systems like Linux and Windows NT to prevent a fellow user from accessing your passwords, you can restrict file access to the copernicus data file.
Alternatively there is a very easy way to protect your passwords from all three security risks.
And that is instead of storing your actual passwords, store a representation of them. For example -
most users of copernicus use the same password for all their different services but use Copernicus
to keep track of all the sites they are subscribed to and the different login names, email addresses etc.
If this is the case then instead of actually storing your password you could store the text |
All content unless otherwise specified © 2002-2003 by William Denniss (Tank Software)
Java and the Java Coffee Cup Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries.
Page Created: 28 October 2003, Modified: 29 October 2003