This new 1Password feature stops you right before a costly mistake
The password manager’s latest feature acts like a second pair of eyes, warning you before you hand your login details to scammers.
Password manager 1Password has been getting some nice new features recently. The latest announcement by the company gives us a new phishing protection feature. This new feature is intended to be used as a "second pair of eyes". This should help prevent unsuspecting users from giving their passwords to scammers.
1Password has a new tool to help prevent you from sharing your password with scammers
The new feature works in a simple way. Basically, it would not autofill a username and password on a website that appears to be spoofing another. This is intended to serve as a layer of protection for unsuspecting users.
Users can still bypass this protection by manually grabbing their username and password from the app.
Moreover, 1Password also adds further protection. When you try to paste your username and password into a website, the 1Password browser extension will display a warning to you. The warning, displayed in a pop-up window, would be telling you to pause and use caution before continuing.
The company hopes that with these changes, users will take a second and think if the website they are entering their credentials in is legitimate. Taking a second and looking at the website more carefully would help people distinguish it from the real one if it's fake.
The feature, aimed at protecting you from phishing, will be turned on by default on the individual and family plans. For organizations using 1Password, admins would be able to turn it on for employees. The new feature is now starting to roll out to users.
Not every password manager offers this anti-phishing protection
This new 1Password protection is especially helpful for users who don't always second-guess where they're entering their passwords. However, not all password managers offer this kind of protection.
For example, 1Password competitor Bitwarden has broader risk detection tools that are aimed at spotting credential risks and blocking AI-driven attacks at a more technical level. However, that protection doesn't warn you right when you're about to paste a password in a fake website.
The big names in the mobile tech world also offer password managers with different levels of protection. There's Apple's Passwords/iCloud Keychain and Google Password Manager, and both use passkeys so it's harder to phish. There's also Samsung Pass. But these don't come with dedicated phishing warnings like 1Password.
Generally, the industry is working on fighting phishing. Even social media platforms like Meta are now offering passkey support that ties login credentials to specific domains. That, for example, makes it harder for malicious users to steal them in the first place.
Meanwhile, 1Password has a long list of security tools for your digital protection. The platform uses AES-256 encryption so only you can access your vault. There's also a Secret Key feature for an additional layer of security. 1Password also has a feature that scans for weak, reused, or compromised passwords, and it also alerts you to breaches and encourages you towards better password hygiene.
Of course, you can use passkeys and two-factor authentication to further protect your accounts.
I'm all for extra protection online nowadays
I quite like what 1Password is doing here with the extra levels of protection. Yes, being too protective can cause the user experience to suffer a bit, but the small annoyance of having to double-check or copy-paste manually is nothing if you're protected against phishing.
Usually tech-savvy users don't fall for phishing attacks (although anyone can make a mistake); however, many less attentive people do. And for them, having this extra level of security is essential, in my opinion. For one, I'd be getting 1Password for my mom's computer.
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