In its latest version, Microsoft Edge has a dashboard that assesses the strength of your passwords.
If you are using invalid passwords, Microsoft will no longer be shy to tell you. It will also let you know if, on the contrary, you are using passwords that meet current computer security requirements. Indeed, the update of its web browser, Edge 92, includes a dashboard evaluating the quality of your passwords.
An analysis of the quality of passwords
This is in the form of a gauge with three notches, indicating three situations: when the gauge is full, Microsoft reports that it is not aware of a particular problem. It is neither fragile nor reused. At the notch below, Microsoft warns that the password is either too weak or used on another site. Finally, last step: the password is too weak and reused elsewhere.
Microsoft’s assessment is based on what it knows of the passwords for a particular Internet user. To have the most complete and detailed view, the Microsoft Edge password manager must necessarily be filled in exhaustively: it cannot know by itself if you are using a password on two sites. different, if you only record one of the two.
There is a fourth indicator, which is a bit special: it is triggered only when Microsoft is aware of a data breach. A red icon will be displayed if necessary and the Internet user will have every interest in changing the password on the affected site, to avoid a possible unauthorized intrusion into the account. Again, Microsoft can only make this report if it can analyze passwords.
To determine if a password has been leaked, the American company actually compares the passwords that have been saved in the web browser to those in a repository dedicated to connection information (usernames, passwords) that have been posted on the web. If there is a match, Microsoft issues an alert. The company recalls that passwords are encrypted on Edge.
The indications on the strength of passwords and their frequency of use are all small incentives for Internet users to increase their level of security, by pointing out the most obvious weaknesses. In addition, Microsoft Edge also offers a setting to suggest strong passwords, which can be used instead.
All of these tools already exist elsewhere in other software. For example, password monitoring is a feature offered, for example, by Google Chrome (web browser) and Dashlane (password manager). The analysis of the quality of passwords is also a service found in these programs, always with the aim of suggesting to the Internet user to improve.
