Security on your computer is of utmost importance, but as we have mentioned many a time, a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In fact, it was just yesterday when we talked about how researchers have managed to come up with a proof-of-concept malware that can spread through audio signals alone, putting to death the notion that a computer that is not linked to the Internet or network in any way is safe from such malicious programs. Earlier this morning, a botnet attempt managed to see the leak of over 2 million passwords that could offer access to multiple online services. Well, Google must have security weigh pretty heavily on their minds, as they finally tightened Chrome security so that user passwords would be better protected.
Chrome enthusiast François Beaufort claims that the tighter Chrome security is no longer limited to just Mac OS environments, but this feature has now arrived on the Windows platform as users are asked to authenticate themselves prior to accessing saved credentials within their browser. In the past, users were only able to access a plaintext list of saved passwords through pointing the browser at “chrome://settings/passwords”, which made it all too easy for someone to gain access if one’s computer was left unattended. [Francois Beaufort Google+]