Proton launches its own password manager

Proton – best known for its secure email provider ProtonMail, has announced the release of a password manager.

Like the other company’s services, which also include a VPN and cloud storage service, Proton Pass is selling itself on the basis of its “rigorous” end-to-end encryption.

In effect, this means that no one other than the user will be able to view their own passwords, even if their vault ends up in the hands of cybercriminals should a malware or ransomware attack hit the company; as long as they don’t have the decryption key (i.e. your master password for locking the vault) then your credentials should remain safe.

Wait and see

In a company blog post announcing the beta release, CEO Andy Yen explained the importance of complete end-to-end encryption, explaining that “seemingly innocuous bits of information (such as saved URLs, which many other password managers don’t encrypt) can be used to create a highly detailed profile on you.”

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Lifetime and Visionary users of Proton will be able to access the beta of Proton Pass as invites roll out from next week via email to the ProtonMail accounts of eligible users. It is worth mentioning that the Visionary plan is no longer available for new customers.

Noting that a password manager has been much requested from the Proton user community, Yen hinted that Proton Pass will offer more enticing features, aside from its committed approach to encryption, in an effort to make it the best password manager available. However, he stopped short of giving any explicit details, saying that all will become clear in the coming months as the company aims for a public release later this year.

Proton Pass was developed with members of the SimpleLogin team, the anonymous email service which merged with Proton last year. There will be a free full version of Proton Pass, but certain features will be restricted to paying customers only. Those with the all-in-one Proton Unlimited subscription, which includes full access to Proton Mail, Proton VPN, Proton Drive and Proton Calendar, will get the fully-fledged Proton Pass too.

In terms of platform compatibility, Proton Pass is available as a browser extension In Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, as well as having an Android and iOS mobile app. It also includes an integrated two-factor authenticator (2FA) and supports 2FA autofill too.

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