Microsoft Launches a New Trick for Keeping Your Password Safe
How to enable Microsoft's new password protection protocol?
Don't easily share your PC password. It's the key to your kingdom. From work to social media to banking, the whole world is potentially accessible from your Windows computer. As a result, Microsoft is begging us not to be idiots who give our passwords to anyone who asks. But they know some of us will.
The problem is phishing, or tricking someone into giving up personal digital information, such as his PC password. Scammers are good at extracting such information from unsuspecting victims. One strategy is to create a her website that looks exactly like the one you're trying to sign up for, but is completely fake. Even if you spot the scam in time and don't click the Login button, simply entering your password on these sites may be enough for hackers to steal your password.
This is never a good thing, but it's even worse when the password you use on Facebook is the same password you use on your computer. A malicious person knows how to log into a computer. Another issue concerns insecure password storage. For example, if you store all your passwords in a standard Word or Excel file, you are vulnerable to data theft. Passwords should only be stored in password-protected and encrypted sources, not in standard, publicly readable documents.
While the risks to individuals are high, so are the risks to businesses and networks. Hackers have attacked huge institutions thanks to weak or leaked passwords. Simply gaining access to a user's computer can pose a complete security risk.
How Microsoft protects Windows passwords?
With last week's major Windows 11 2022 update, Microsoft released a new arsenal to protect users from PC password theft. The first is the warning you get when you use your Windows login password on another website. The goal is to prevent other services from using your PC password. If the site you're "logging in" to is actually a phishing site, the hacker knows your PC's password, but the password can be leaked even on legitimate sites. The second option warns you if you enter your password in a program that cannot store passwords securely. Microsoft tries not to keep passwords in apps like Word or Notepad because they don't offer the same protection as a real password manager.
How to enable Microsoft's new password protection protocol?
For some reason, these password protection options are not enabled by default and are mostly buried in settings. I have. It will not work if you log in to your PC with a PIN, so you'll need to disable that option first. (Go to Start > Settings > Accounts > Sign-in options, select the Windows Hello method you want to disable, and select Remove.)
Then open the Start menu > Settings > Privacy and security > Windows security > App and browser control > Reputation-based protection settings. Turn on Antiphishing, which should already be set to On. Other options of note are Warn about password reuse and Warn about insecure password storage. With both turned on, you'll get a notification when you enter your password in an insecure app.
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