The world is still recovering from the damage caused by the Crowdstrike update, which brought a slew of businesses around the world to a halt, including healthcare organizations, airlines, and banks, among others. To make matters worse, Google Chrome recently reported a new crisis in which the passwords of around 15 million Windows users disappeared for 18 hours on July 24 and 25.
How Google Chrome’s Crash Caused Panic for Windows Users
The bug that caused the issue is believed to be due to a “change in product behavior” in Google Chrome. According to Forbes, there was an issue with Google Password Manager, which has over 3 million users. Windows users rely on Google Password Manager to save their passwords so they can access websites easily without having to type in their chosen passwords.
The bug was reported in version M127 of the Chrome browser on Windows. It prevented users from using previously saved passwords and lost new passwords. While the issue persisted with the M127 update, it affected around 15 million Windows users, Forbes reported.
Users who encountered the error were asked to restart the browser using a command-line flag to temporarily avoid the issue. The issue was later resolved by Google after nearly 18 hours. Once the issue was fixed, users simply restarted the browser when they encountered the error.
Google apologized to those affected: “We apologize for any inconvenience this service disruption or outage may cause.”
The Risks of Trusting Online Password Managers
This recent issue raises concerns about the reliability of Online Password Managers. Millions of Google users rely on this feature to save passwords for websites related to a variety of purposes, such as work, healthcare, childcare, education, government, entertainment, etc. This may not be the best solution for users who are prone to technical glitches and system crashes. While it is not safe to trust any password-saving site, especially when it comes to important documents, users should still have a backup plan in place.
