Opera Browser Gets Paste Protection Feature

Opera Software introduced a new security feature called Paste Protection in the latest Opera 84 Developer update. It is designed to protect the content that is on the clipboard.

The contents of the clipboard can contain all kinds of sensitive data, from credit card numbers and passwords to personal information. Clipboard content can be hijacked, for example, by malicious software running on a device or through exploits.

One crypto wallet identifier bank account number could be replaced with another, so that money or crypto currency is transferred to a different account.

Opera Browser will monitor the clipboard for changes after the “sensitive data” is copied or until it is used. A warning message is displayed if tampering is detected.

Opera Software’s official blog post offers little information on how the feature works.

Opera has come up with a safe way to protect you from this. When you copy sensitive data into Opera, the data is monitored for changes for some time or until you paste it. If an external application changes the data, a warning is displayed.

It is interesting to note that Opera Browser detects only certain types of sensitive data. If you copy, for example, an IBAN in a specific format, the message “An IBAN has been copied and protected” will appear in the upper right corner of the browser window.

Other content is not protected, including IBANs that use a different format, for example with spaces, were not detected by the browser during testing. Opera did not disclose the types of data it protects, apart from IBAN numbers and crypto currency numbers.

The feature cannot be disabled, at least not in the developer version it was introduced in. The feature arrived in Opera 84.0.4274.0, which the company released on December 20, 2021.

closing words

Paste Protect seems like a useful feature, but the protection in the initial version seems to be limited. Opera Software could have enabled the feature for all clipboard content and added an option to turn it off for specific sites, or turn it off entirely; this would make it more useful, especially since the browser doesn’t even recognize all the different formats in which sensitive data it supports can be copied.

Now you: What is your opinion on Opera web browser’s new paste protection feature? (via Deskmodder)

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