Firefox Lockwise, Mozilla's password manager, now alerts you immediately if you've reused a password that's leaked in a data breach.
Reusing passwords isn't good practice – ideally we'd use strong, unique logins for all our accounts – but it's easily done when you're registered with scores of websites and services, particularly if you created the accounts before you started using a password manager to keep track of them all.
Unfortunately, doing so leaves your accounts particularly vulnerable, as a would-be attacker can simply try plugging the same details into various different sites.
Lockwise (which is now built into Firefox as standard, having started life as a plug-in) could already warn you if one of your logins appeared in a list following a data breach, so you knew to change it straight away, but the latest update goes one step further, warning you straight away if any of your repeated passwords has popped up in a recent breach.
Stop shoulder-surfers
The latest Firefox update also helps protect you from shoulder-surfers who might wait until you're away from your desk for a moment to grab a coffee, open your password manager and jot down all your logins before you return.
Previously, if you hadn't set a master password using Lockwise, it was possible to scope out a full list of saved logins through the browser's main menu. Hopefully it's not a problem many of us will face while working from home, but many concerned users requested a solution.
Now, if you don't already have a master password set already, Firefox won't let you see stored usernames and passwords unless you first enter your Windows or macOS login credentials. A small change, and one that should give you some extra peace of mind when you're back in the office.
