Data breaches are a sad truth of the modern Web and every other day we hear about some new hack or breach that may have leaked your data. Savvy Internet users use password managers or don’t reuse passwords, but the majority of Internet users are still way behind the curve on these learnings. In order to help such users, Google has introduced a nifty new Chrome extension that will help you in sync with the data breaches and suggests changing the password if your account details have been compromised. The company has also revealed a measure that it has implemented to make sure the apps and websites, where a person has used their Google account to sign in is not compromised in the case of a Google account hijacking.
Google revealed in a blog post on Tuesday that the new Password Checkup Chrome extension is now live on the Chrome Web Store and can be downloaded by anyone. The extension alerts users when they enter a compromised username and password on a website, the extension will alert them that the login information has been compromised and suggests a password change. The extension is particularly useful for users, who can’t regularly keep track of news about data breaches and hacks or go to specific websites to check whether their account details have been compromised or not.
The search giant added that it has built the Password Checkup with privacy concerns of sharing your account details with anyone, including Google, in mind. It notes that no one, including Google, will know about your account information.
“We built Password Checkup so that no one, including Google, can learn your account details. To do this, we developed privacy-protecting techniques with the help of cryptography researchers at both Google and Stanford University,” Google wrote in the blog post.
How to install Google’s Password Checkup extension
Open Chrome on your computer
Now, head over to this link to open the Password Checkup listing on the Chrome Web Store
Tap “Add to Chrome”
Confirm that you want to add the extension to your Chrome
Once installed, a screen shield icon will appear on the top right
That’s it. You’re done.
Additionally, the Mountain View-based company revealed the Cross Account Protection measure that will make sure the apps and websites where you are using your Google account credentials to sign in is not compromised in case an attacker finds a way into your Google account. While the Google account itself has had added protections to deal with attackers and malicious parties, it is the first time the company is improving the security of Google sign-in for third-party platforms. When your Google account is compromised, Google will notify the apps and websites where you have used your Google credentials about the breach so that they can secure your account on their platform.
“We created Cross Account Protection by working closely with other major technology companies, like Adobe, and the standards community at the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and OpenID Foundation to make this easy for all apps to implement,” Google said in a statement.
