34 Macworld • February 2022MACOS TIPS & TRICKS
This Safari Start Page alert seemed suspicious in itself, but it’s legitimate, and you
can cross-check it.But on closer examination and
a little research, I realized it was
legitimate. I’d never received this
kind of alert from Apple in Safari,
despite the feature first appearing
in operating system releases in the
third quarter of 2020. (That makes
me lucky.)
Because any legitimate
security alert will be duplicated
and impersonated by phishers and
scammers, you can validate that
it’s genuine by visiting one of the
following locations:- In iOS or iPadOS, go to Settings >
Passwords. - In Safari, go to Safari > Preferences
Passwords.
- In macOS 12 Monterey, use Safari or
the Passwords preference pane.
In each of those locations, you’ll
see an alert about the password in
question. If you dismiss the alert in
Safari, it won’t appear, however.Tap or click Change Password
on the website, and Apple opens a
browser window (within Passwords
in iOS/iPadOS) where you can log
in and then change your password,
and agree to store the new one when
the operating system prompts you
to update the stored entry. If the
site includes a configuration file in a
special location, Apple opens directly
to a web page for that site where you
can change your password without
further navigation.
While fixing one password, you
can review others. At the top of
the Passwords list in iOS, iPadOS,
and macOS, there’s a Security
Recommendations heading (tap it in
iOS/iPadOS). You can scroll through
a list of potentially compromised
passwords, as well as those that the
password system has identified as
weak or used by two or more sites.
Change those to reduce the risk of
having accounts hijacked.
And, while you’re at, sign up for