Password managers with warnings – Background

If there’s one security tip that you’ve hopefully followed over the years, it’s that you should use a unique password. The reason is now well known: the biggest danger if an account is hacked is that the password ends up in data dumps which can now be bought online for a few dollars and which criminals use at a spray attack. So that password that you use for local butcher’s online store Het Weaned Varken is used for much larger accounts, and voila: suddenly you have a bigger problem than someone seeing how many pork chops you have. bought last year.

Password managers are the perfect way to manage different passwords. It is sometimes difficult for users to choose a password manager, but it has become easier in recent years due to a major development – in-browser password managers. They are basic, but free and readily available. In recent weeks, the biggest browsers have been given an additional function. Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla not only help users manage passwords, but also warn them if they are using passwords known to be stolen. This is difficult because for that they have to store the login information and you obviously don’t want to do it in plain text. Therefore, “homomorphic encryption” is used, a process by which encrypted data sets can be compared to each other. These functions are now available in Chrome and Edge. Mozilla has been using a different implementation for a few years now. But whichever one is used, it makes password management a bit more secure.