You surely read and hear a lot about online database hacking, and how millions of users names and passwords are in the hands of the malicious hackers—and you get a sinking feeling that one of them once might be yours. There are also security breaches you don't hear about, the ones that leave nasty surprises in your inbox or on your credit card statement.
KeePass is free and open-source password manager available for Windows, with unofficial ports for iOS, Android, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Many of us are using the same password everywhere. This means that if the user database of any one website you sign up for is compromised, hackers can (and often do) try your username and password on many other websites and gain access.
KeePass lets you keep all of these username/password pairs in a securely encrypted database, protected behind a single master password—the only password you'll have to remember. And unlike its competitor LastPass, KeePass doesn't automatically put your password database in the cloud (although you can put it into Dropbox yourself).
KeePass protects against keylogging with its AutoType feature, which saves you the trouble of manually typing individual website passwords. KeePass pastes them into the browser window using a combination of virtual keystrokes and clipboard obfuscation, making it all the more difficult for a keylogger to figure out what the password is.
The chat clients built into Facebook and Gmail emphasize ubiquity and ease of use far more than encryption. Free chat client Cryptocat claims that you can have both security and convenience.
Cryptocat runs as a browser extension and handles encryption locally. Still, encryption software, even when it's open-source, can't be considered 100% secure until it's been thoroughly audited and battle-tested (preferably for years).