MAKE YOUR PASSWORDS INDESTRUCTIBLE

YOU CAN USE AN APPLE TOOL TO FIND AND REPLACE YOUR WEAKEST PASSWORDS, ALONG WITH THOSE FOUND IN SECURITY BREACHES OR THOSE YOU REUSE ACROSS SITES.

- GLENN FLEISHMAN

Despite the rise of two-factor authentication, password D security remains a top priority. Unless your password is unique, is relatively long, and hasn't been found in a database breach as plain text, you should probably change it. For some sites, you might not have changed the password in years-or ever. (Conversely, if any password for a given site you use is unique, long, and unbreached, there's no valid reason to change it.)

Apple offers a tool to help you fix your worst passwords. Security Recommendations can be found in iOS and iPadOS in Settings → Passwords. In macOS, find it in System Settings → Passwords (Ventura); or System Preferences Passwords (Monterey); or Safari → Preferences/Settings → Passwords (all macOS versions). It's easiest to manage on macOS, so the examples below come from Ventura.

The recommendations are divided into High Priority Recommendations and Other Recommendations. For me, I had 18 in the former category and 68 in the other. (If you don't have any High Priority Recommendations, it may just show a list.) It's not clear why Apple promotes some entries into the high-priority category. With my account, items listed as high priority include a financial site, a government (.gov) site, and several Apple sites. The other sites included don't necessarily have anything in common-the shortness of the password or how commonly used a word in the password was.

In macOS Ventura, you'll find Security recommendations in System Settings → Passwords.

WARNINGS LISTED BY APPLE 

Here's what you'll see as warnings in both high-priority and standard-priority entries: