Microsoft Authenticator Now Lets Users Generate Strong Passwords

Security Authenticator

Microsoft has released a new update for its Authenticator app that allows users to generate strong and unique passwords. The new password generation feature started rolling out last month, and it’s now generally available for all customers.

Microsoft highlights that the Authenticator app uses an “enterprise-grade password generation algorithm” to generate all new passwords. The company added that human-generated passwords can’t be unique enough to prevent cyberattacks. It is important for users to secure their accounts with complex and unique passwords to protect their sensitive information.

“According to the Verizon’s Data Breach Investigation Report 2021, 61% of data breaches happen due to leveraged passwords. Autofill helps you stay safer online by creating strong, unique passwords with different combinations of numbers and characters using our new Password Generator every time you create an account or change the password of an existing one,” the company explained.

Microsoft Authenticator Now Lets Users Generate Strong Passwords

How to generate strong passwords with Microsoft Authenticator​

To use the new password generation feature, users will need to install the latest version of Microsoft Authenticator on iOS and Android devices. The app will automatically prompt users to generate a strong password while creating new accounts or changing an existing password on an app or a website.

Additionally, desktop users can use the Microsoft Autofill Extension to generate strong passwords on websites. The extension is available to download on the Google Chrome web store. The passwords will be stored in the password manager and synced across all devices connected to the same personal Microsoft account. Unfortunately, the autofill feature doesn’t support syncing data with school or work accounts.

Microsoft Authenticator is one of the fastest-growing apps, and the software giant has announced that it has reached more than 75 million active users. In addition to the password management capabilities, the Authenticator app provides other security features such as authentication context and location based-access control. It also gives users the ability to view their login history.