Storing encrypted passwords

Question

My coworker and I are having a fist-fight civilized discussion over password security. Please help us resolve our differences.

One of us takes the v

Answer 1

If you're a fringe case, like mint.com, yes, do it. Mint stores your passwords to several other sites (your bank, credit card, 401k, etc), and when you login to Mint, it goes to all of those other sites, logs in via script as you, and pulls back your updated financial data into one easy-to-see centralized site. Is it tinfoil-hat secure? Probably not. Do I love it? Yes.

If you're not a fringe case, lord no, you shouldn't ever be doing this. I work for a large financial institution, and this is certainly not at all an accepted practice. This would probably get me fired.