Summary

Contents of Help

Summary

Concept of Pinguard

Pinguard PIN-encryption concept

Pinguard PIN-password

How safe is Pinguard?

When your card is not on the list

By the way...

Contacting 'Nice Software!'


encryption

Concept of Pinguard

Yours truly received his 5th PIN-code recently. An other

PIN-code changed,  and not for the better.

I desperately needed a simple manner to store all the

PIN-codes and keep them away from prying eyes.

PIN-codes should best be memorized or kept in a very

safe place. You cannot simply write them down and pin

them to a pinboard. This is where Pinguard comes in.

Now you only need to memorize one single password

in long term memory in stead of several  meaningless

numbers.


pin-encryption

Pinguard PIN-encryption concept

Pinguard  uses  a 4 character password to scramble the

4 digit PIN-code.  The encryption scheme changes the

appearance of the original PIN-code into a different

PIN-code and stores it to disk. The password itself is

not stored . Anyone who looks in the data-file or types

in a incorrect password  is still presented with a apparently

legitimate PIN-code.

There's no way of knowing whether the answer is wrong or

right. Only you know it when you type in the correct

password.

So only one password, which you supply and of course is

meaningful to you, is enough to be able to recall any or all

of  your PIN-codes.


password
Pinguard PIN-password

When coding this first version of Pinguard it was my  intention

to let you use one password for all your cards. However it

occurred to me that some of you out there may want to

use a different password for each PIN-code. This may seem

far fetched but remember that you choose your own

password but a PIN-code is simply forced on you.

So it's up to you to decide which way you want it.

To keep you free in this , I omitted a change in  password that

would affect the datafile. You now only change the

password at run-time when you know that you have used a

wrong decryption-password.

If you need to change the password for encryption, you

should remove the card first and enter it anew.

Be careful not to edit the PIN-code when you are not happy

with the decrypted result. Remember that every different

word results into a different PIN-code  representation.

Hint:

A proper password  should not be your name or the name

of a friend or relative.

Take something like 'SIAS'  (Say It Ain't So) or

'MDSP' (My Difficult Secret Password),  in other words,

take something that cannot be connected to you in any way

with the possible exception of MFSF (My Favourite Sport

Football).

Needless to say that all these examples are out of the

question too.


is it safe?
How safe is Pinguard?

'Is it safe?' Are you kidding? Did you see 'Marathon Man'?

But seriously folks. You cannot be too careful where PIN-

codes are concerned.  If  you trust your PIN-codes to

any medium, you are at risk. But then again, even if you

memorize them, they can be forced out of you.

As for PIN-guard, I am not a great mathematician but I

think it is difficult to work out the PIN-codes,  if one does

not know either the password or one of the real PIN-codes.

I don't give any guarantees. It is up to you to decide how

safe PIN-guard is and if you want to use it at all.


bitmaps;icons;graphics
When your card is not on the list

I supplied a few bitmaps of cards that are known to me.

No doubt you will find that one or more of your cards

are not on the list.

I made these bitmaps with Windows supplied Paintbrush

and it is really dead easy. Just load any of these bitmaps

in Paintbrush and adapt them to your liking.

The PIN-guard bitmaps give you less surface to work

on than you would find on a stamp, so you need to zoom

in and work on a pixel-level.

If you cannot do it at all than feel free to send me an

image of your card (brochure, leaflet, not the actual card)

when you register and I will make the bitmap, free of charge!


shareware
By the way...

This program is shareware. This means that you can

use this program for a given time, in this case 30 days,

to see if you like it. If you still use it after the trial period,

the program obviously is of value to you. You are then

expected to register and pay a small fee.

By your support you keep the shareware principle alive

which brings the world a lot of fine programs at

ridiculous low prices.


nice software!

Contacting 'Nice SoftWare'

Nice SoftWare!

PO BOX 6136

NL 2702 AC Zoetermeer

THE NETHERLANDS

phone	+31-79-3165841

fax	+31-79-3165841

fido	2:281/527.3

Internet	nicesoft@pi.net