It’s become common for users to receive this popup window on their iPhones. Explaining that their password has appeared in a data leak. It’s a concerning message that most users want to know more about. And that’s what I’ll explain right now.
So the reason why this message suddenly began appearing on iPhones is because of a recently added feature in iOS 14 called password monitoring. It compares your passwords against a list of known leaked passwords and warns you if there’s a match.
Now that doesn’t mean someone’s trying to log in to any of your accounts, it just means that your password has been made publicly accessible through a data leak, and your accounts are vulnerable to hackers. But how’re these data leaks happening? And who’s responsible?
Well, they’re quite common. In 2021, there were 1,291 data leaks from hundreds of different companies. Including Microsoft, Facebook, T-Mobile, Neiman Marcus, and Panasonic. Security breaches are carried out in several ways. It can be done physically, by accessing a computer to steal local files containing company data.
Or remotely, by tricking employees into revealing their login credentials, or sending malicious email attachments that allow access to the company’s network once it’s opened. Once hackers have the data, it’s leaked. By selling and exchanging it with others.
Who might end up with someone’s credit card information or social security number? Attacks like these have only become more frequent, so Apple introduced their password monitoring feature to help protect users. But what exactly should you do when you receive this notification?
Well, if it’s a password you only use for a specific website that doesn’t contain sensitive personal information, you could simply ignore it. But if you use the same password for virtually every app, service, and website, then you should seriously consider changing that password.
Especially when it comes to banking websites or your iCloud account. Even though it’s inconvenient, it’s not as stressful as someone accessing your banking information or iCloud account.
