passwords

Microsoft's passwordless plans lets users switch to app-based login

The technology giant made passwordless accounts available for business users of its products in March.

And that system is now being made available to all Microsoft or Windows users.

It said "nearly 100% of our employees" were already using the new, more secure system for their corporate accounts.

And this is far more secure than using passwords, which can be guessed or stolen, according to Microsoft.

"Only you can provide fingerprint authentication or provide the right response on your mobile at the right time," it said.

Facebook wants to kill the password

For now, they are necessary, as well as regularly re-used, and sometimes leaked when hackers access private information. When you forget yours, the process to log back into an account you're locked out of is clunky and not as secure as it could be.

Facebook (FB, Tech30) wants to change that, and eventually, to make passwords obsolete.

How to delete YouTube, Google+, Gmail from your Google Account in one go?

     

The list of Google services also includes Google+, Mountain View’s second ‘not so successful’ attempt to defeat Facebook in their own game. For Google, it’s a hard truth, most of the Google account users never visit their Google Plus profiles even once in a month.

If you are among the people who don’t prefer Google+, then Google has given you all the authority to remove the profile from your account. You can follow these steps to remove various services from your Google account that you don’t like:

Attack on Yahoo hit 500 million users

The breach included swathes of personal information including names and emails as well as “unencrypted security questions and answers”.

It did not include any credit card data, the site said, adding it believed the attack was state-sponsored.

In July, Yahoo was sold to US telecoms giant Verizon for $4.8bn (£3.7bn).

The FBI has confirmed it is investigating the attack.

 

Password change urged

The worst passwords of 2015

And this year, "123456" and "password" topped this list.

Just like last year. And the year before that.

Other popular choices this year were sports, like "football" and "baseball".