Oliver Haslam on July 4, 2020, 10:51 pm

iOS 14 And macOS Big Sur Warn Users When Their Passwords Have Been Leaked, More

Apple is adding a ton of new features to iOS 14 and some have been getting a ton of press. But there’s one that might arguably be the most important of all with iOS 14 notifying users when their passwords have been leaked online.

Part of the new iOS 14, iCloud Keychain features enables the system to check your passwords to ensure that they’re reliable and secure. There are a few times that they might not be, including those where the password is already used by a large number of people or is easy to guess.

While iOS 13 already does this, it’s been improved and made more prominent in the new update – at least in its current developer beta form.

The biggest improvement, however, is iOS 14’s Security Recommendation and ability to now tell users when their passwords have been found in a data breach. The same feature is part of Safari’s macOS 11 Big Sur update, too.

Safari securely monitors your saved passwords, automatically keeping an eye out for passwords that may have been involved in a data breach. To do this, Safari uses strong cryptographic techniques to regularly check derivations of your passwords against a list of breached passwords in a secure and private way that doesn’t reveal your password information — even to Apple. If Safari discovers a breach, it can help you upgrade to Sign in with Apple when available, or automatically generate a new secure password.

Before now this feature has long been available in password managers like 1Password and Apple bringing it to Keychain is a big deal, not least for the developers of those apps. The implementation of Keychain and the management and sharing of passwords still leaves a lot to be desired, however.

Apple will release iOS 14 alongside macOS 11 Big Sure later this year, likely in September. It’s currently available in developer beta form, with a new public beta likely to arrive this month.