Security

June 2025 – Hot New Web Dev

Welcome to Hot Web Dev June 2025, featuring the latest technology, web development news and articles. In this edition, we look at the recent impact of 16 billion passwords being leaked and, more importantly, what you can do to protect yourself. The tool of the month is a new design system without a build step.

Table of contents

16 Billion Passwords Leaked
Learning Resources
Coding Resources
WOW Tool of the Month
Must-Read Resources From June 2025

16 Billion Passwords Leaked

Wow, that’s a lot of passwords. The plain-text passwords are linked to services such as Google, Apple, Facebook, GitHub, Telegram and government credentials.

This gives insight into why you should not reuse passwords. Once a hacker has access to your email account, they can snoop through it. There is a big chance that you store your emails, including banking accounts. They can socially engineer targeted scams to fool you into thinking they are from a legitimate service. Think about the information you share on social media. Is it open for everyone to see? Perhaps locking down the security in your profiles to display to only friends and family.

The best action is to stop reusing passwords, generate random ones (not dictionary-based) and store them in a password manager. All mobile phones, operating systems and browsers have built-in password managers. If you don’t like the built-in ones, you can use Bitwarden for free.

Enable security Two-Factor or Multi-Factor Authentication on all of your accounts. Although not a foolproof approach, if your four-digit code to access your Facebook account is sent to a vulnerable email account. Leveridge apps, such as Google or Microsoft Authenticator, to generate these codes instead of sending them to email addresses.

Passkeys, a new approach that replaces passwords entirely, are supported by Apple, Google, and Microsoft. These device-based keys offer a secure alternative to traditional passwords.

Judge any communications received with a sceptical approach, even if you receive an email and text message simultaneously, or have an account with the service mentioned. Never click on any links in emails and text messages. Always type in the address instead.

The elderly are a common target for scammers and are very vulnerable to being victims. If you have friends and family in this category, help them.

See all of my scam posts.

Finally, don’t ever think it won’t happen to you!

Source

Forbes

Learning Resources

Understanding the inner workings of Node.js helps write better, more efficient code and makes debugging and optimising apps easier. Node.js is more than just JavaScript with server features; it includes powerful tools and libraries that give JavaScript abilities it normally doesn’t have. Learn how this technology works behind the scenes in this article.

Coding Resources

JavaScript is a fast and flexible language for game development, with many free and open-source frameworks available. This article highlights five of the best frameworks, each with its own strengths and ideal use cases.

Modern frontend applications rely heavily on API communication, impacting maintainability, performance, and developer experience. This article explores battle-tested patterns for handling API calls, from basic request/response to complex state management.

WOW Tool Of The Month

This month’s tool of the month is a new UI library for HTML enthusiasts, powered by modern CSS and Web Components. Kelp offers a no-build step system that employs a HUG CSS approach, eliminating the need for classes for core styles. For instance, a button is created using the HTML button tags and nothing else. Utility classes are provided to fine-tune styling as needed, and classes can be grouped to simplify the styling of more complex components.

Kelp is a design system that maximises your pages, including typography, forms, components, badges, avatars, callouts, and skeletons. Kelp is currently in alpha and under active development, so it may not be suitable for production environments. I’m grateful to Chris Ferdinand for his release, and I look forward to trying it out on new projects soon.