Google chrome is the most popular web browser to date, allowing millions of internet users to access web services on various platforms. It is however saddening to realize that majority of these users always get their login data lost to hackers resulting from the use of unsafe passwords.
While there is no way to get back any of the lost data, there is one to prevent them. Google has launched a solution in the new Password Checkup Chrome extension.
What is Google Password Checkup?
Password Checkup is a Google Chrome extension that helps you to re-secure accounts that were affected by data breaches. Once installed, it will have its icon appear on your browser bar as long as you are online.
Wherever you sign-in, if you enter a username and password that is no longer safe due to appearing in a data breach known to Google, you’ll receive an alert – prompting you to change your password.
Are my credentials secure?
Google says that the Password Checkup was designed jointly with cryptography experts at Stanford University to ensure that the company never gets to know your username or password, and that “any breach data stays safe from wider exposure”.
We designed Password Checkup with privacy-preserving technologies to never reveal this personal information to Google. We also designed Password Checkup to prevent an attacker from abusing Password Checkup to reveal unsafe usernames and passwords. Finally, all statistics reported by the extension are anonymous. These metrics include the number of lookups that surface an unsafe credential, whether an alert leads to a password change, and the web domain involved for improving site compatibility.
The company adds that you wont be bothered about outdated passwords you may have already reset or weak passwords like 123456. An alert will pop up when both your current username and password appear in a breach, because that poses the greatest risk.
Availability
Password Checkup is currently available as an extension for Chrome.
