If you are like that Lots of people, someone probably nagged you to use a password manager and you still haven’t taken the advice. Now Chrome and Edge come to the rescue with improved password management built right into the browsers.
Microsoft announced a new password generator for the recently released Edge 88 on Thursday. People can use the generator when signing up for a new account or changing an existing password. The generator provides a drop-down list in the password field. Clicking on the candidate will select it as a password and save it in a password manager built into the browser. People can then have the password pushed to their other devices using the Edge password sync feature.
As I’ve explained for years, the same things that make passwords memorable and easy to use are the same things that make them easy for others to guess. Password generators are among the safest sources of strong passwords. Rather than having to come up with a password that is truly unique and hard to guess, users can instead get a generator to do it right.
“Microsoft Edge provides a built-in strong password generator that you can use when signing up for a new account or changing an existing password,” wrote members of Microsoft’s Edge team. “Just look for the browser suggested password dropdown in the password field, and if selected, it will be automatically saved to the browser and synced across devices for easy future use.”
Edge 88 also introduces a feature called the password monitor. As the name suggests, it checks stored passwords to make sure they are not included in lists composed of compromised websites or phishing attacks. When enabled, the password monitor will notify users when a password matches lists published online.
Checking passwords securely is a difficult task. The browser must be able to match a password against a large, ever-changing list without sending sensitive information to Microsoft or information that can be traced by someone checking the connection between the user and Microsoft. In an accompanying message also published Thursday, Microsoft explained exactly how to do that.
Not to be outdone, members of the Google Chrome team unveiled their own password protection this week. Chief among these is a full-featured password manager built into the browser.
“Chrome may already ask you to update your saved passwords when you log in to websites,” Chrome team members wrote. “However, you may want to easily update multiple usernames and passwords in one convenient place. That’s why from Chrome 88 you can manage all your passwords even faster and easier in the Chrome settings on desktop and iOS (Chrome’s Android app will also get this feature soon). “
Chrome 88 also makes it easier to check if saved passwords ended up on password dumps. While password checking came to Chrome last year, the feature is now accessible through a security check.
Many people prefer to use a special password manager because it offers more options than the ones baked into their browser. For example, most dedicated managers make it easy to use dice safely. With the line between browsers and password managers fading, it is probably only a matter of time before browsers offer more advanced management capabilities.
This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.
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