Starting with iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 the keychain of our iPhone or iPad, where we store the passwords, can warn us when some of them are not secure. The system is even able to check if the password has appeared in a leak and warn us about it. Let’s see how to review the security of our passwords simply using our iPhone.
Recommendations and safety checks
With iOS and iPadOS 14 Apple has improved the warning of vulnerabilities in the passwords of our iCloud keychain. Until now the system was able to warn us, for example, if we reused passwords between multiple accounts, now the system is able to detect common passwords and those leaked in attacks or security breaches.
There are several reasons for the system to mark a password as insecure, the most common are:
- Reused password.
- Easy to guess password (part of the password is repeated).
- Easy to guess password (contains a common password).
- Easy-to-guess password (contains a sequence).
In addition to these possibilities, there is also the monitoring of password security. of passwords. With this mechanism the system is able to warn us when it detects that a certain password, or a variant of it, has been made public on the web. Apple explains it this way:
Safari securely monitors your saved passwords, automatically keeping an eye on passwords that may have been involved in a data breach. To do this, Safari uses cryptographic techniques to regularly check the derivations of your passwords against a list of securely and privately leaked passwords that won’t reveal your password information, even to Apple. If Safari discovers a leak, it can help you upgrade to Sign in with Apple when available or automatically generate a new strong password.
How to check the security of your passwords
We can consult the security recommendations of our keychain passwords from our iPhone, iPad or Mac. The steps are similar and very simple:
On our iPhone or iPad
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Go to Passwords.
- Tap on Security Recommendations.
In this section we will see appear a list of all the logins that the system considers insecure. Next to the name of the website we will see a small description of the situation, in the case of the image “the password is easy to guess”.
To act on these passwords we just need one touch to see all the details. From here the most usual thing is that we are suggested to Change the password on the website which opens directly the website to make the changes that we consider appropriate.
On our Mac
- We open the Safari app on our Mac.
- Press Command (⌘) + , (comma).
- Go to the Passwords tab.
A symbol of a triangle with an exclamation mark appears next to the name of the websites whose password is insecure for some reason. When we click on the symbol we see the explanation of the alert and a direct link to the web so that we can make the changes that we consider opportune.
It’s that easy. Without a doubt, being able to monitor our passwords from a single place – the same place from which we can share them via AirDrop – and at a single glance is a huge advantage when it comes to maintaining the security of our accounts.
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