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Hate dealing with passwords? You might like the next version of Chrome.

Google Chrome boasts 310 million active users across the world, and it might just kill off the usage of passwords.
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 09: In this photo illustration, a password log-in box is projected onto the face of a woman on August 09, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Google Chrome’s newest version (dubbed “67” for the version #) is promising to eventually phase out the use of passwords.


How? 

Via both the already-ubiquitous fingerprint sensor such as most smart phones use, as well as USB “dongle” keys, and facial recognition. It’s tied to what’s known as WebAuthn

LONDON, ENGLAND – AUGUST 09: In this photo illustration, a password log-in box is projected onto the face of a woman on August 09, 2017 in London, England.  (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

(Related: If you use a fingerprint sensor to unlock your phone, you can legally be compelled to swipe and unlock your device; not so with actual pin codes/passwords.)

So why are passwords a pain?

—They’re notoriously hard to remember, so people often scribble them down on sticky notes and put them right up on the computer screen. Security, indeed! To get around that, some folks have successfully deployed an all-in-one password keeper such as LastPasss.

—Some companies and sites (Hi, Apple!) will not allow you to change your password to one that’s been used in the last year … which inevitably leads to forgetting the new one. Rinse, repeat. 

—They’re extremely insecure when folks don’t get very creative in their use. (Q: What are the most popular passwords? A: “password,” “123456,” and “qwerty.”) 

—At the same time, as hackers become smarter, some sites and apps require at least one upper-case letter, one number, one symbol, a minimum of 8 characters … you can see where this is going. Yep; Click HERE to wait for an email that will allow you to change your password!

In addition to the possible end of actual passwords, there are a number of improvements that come with Chrome 67, including better handling of Virtual Reality apps, 34 security bug fixes, and better capabilities to handle CPU attacks from web pages. 

And here’s security expert Kathleen Fisher with some concepts on how programmers are staying ahead of hackers:


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