We all save passwords and usernames on our browsers. It’s a means to quickly access the membership-based Web sites that we visit every day. Nevertheless, there’s a security risk to this. If someone steals your laptop, this thief would have little trouble opening your favorite sites. And if you’ve saved the password and username combination to your online bank account? Then you could be in some very serious trouble. If you want to improve online security, it might be time to erase those saved usernames and passwords. Thankfully, New York Times tech writer J.D. Biersdorfer just recently presented the steps for doing it on the most widely used browsers.
Firefox
If you’re a fan of the Firefox Web browser, you’ll be happy to know that erasing saved usernames and passwords is an easy task. If you’re using Windows, first select the tools menu. Next, select options. If you’re relying on a Mac, click on the Firefox menu and then select the preferences option. This will bring up the options box. Once that appears, click the security tab. Next, click on saved passwords. Then click remove all. This makes Firefox forget all those usernames and passwords. If you would like to be more selective, though, you can first choose the view saved passwords choice to hand-select those password/username combinations you would like to erase.
Chrome
For Google Chrome for Windows, click the “Chrome” menu on the right side of your toolbar. Select “settings” and then select “show advanced settings.” Click on the “managed saved passwords” link and choose those passwords you’d like your browser to forget. The process on a Mac computer is similar: Navigate to the “Chrome” menu, choose “preferences” then click “settings.” Choose the “show advanced settings” option and, located under “passwords and forms,” click “manage saved passwords.” Then you can eliminate specific passwords.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 and beyond
The steps for eliminating saved passwords are simple for Microsoft Internet Explorer 9, too. First, click the tools menu and choose the safety option. Choose select browsing history. A box will pop up. You’ll see the options passwords and form data. Click the checkboxes next to these. Then click on the delete button. This will eliminate your saved passwords.
