Today Appleosophy found changes in the keychain icon on macOS Big Sur Beta 8. In previous versions of macOS Big Sur, the icon had a yellow grooved background which has been updated to black gradient. . The set of keys has not changed and has remained the same. Here is a comparison with the icons from beta versions.
Keychain Access is an application on macOS that stores your password and account information securely on your Mac. The Keychain works in conjunction with iCloud, allowing you to share and sync your passwords with your other devices.
First introduced in Mac OS 8.5 as a password management system, Keychain later became the default system for passwords, website data, servers, network shares, networks. Wi-Fi and encrypted disk images.
Originally developed for Apple’s PowerTalk messaging system in the early 1990s, the system was used to store and manage user credentials. The keychain was part of PowerTalk which was useful as a single application, many said. Due to its encryption, passwords were not easily recoverable by the end user, due to its functionality, the Keychain was officially introduced and included in Mac OS 9 and later versions of Mac OS as ‘security credential management application and continued to gain new features in Mac OS. X, including iCloud Keychain for syncing data between iOS, iPadOS, and iCloud.
Keychain access is useful in a lot of ways these days, if you forgot your Wi-Fi password or a website password, the keychain probably would have saved it.
The keychain is encrypted and the files in which the information is stored cannot be accessed without your administrator password. To view saved passwords and other sensitive information, you will also need your administrator password. On iOS and iPadOS, you can use Face ID or Touch ID if enabled to easily access your passwords stored on your device or in iCloud.
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