Google has been proactively working on making its users’ passwords safer by introducing a number of features for its platform.
Not only does Google offer a password manager in its Chrome browser, but it also has been working on introducing a number of Google Chrome extensions that keep users away from malicious websites. Suspicious Site Reporter being a good example.
A recently introduced Chrome extension dubbed Password Checkup extension has revealed that almost 1.5 percent of people are using logins known to be unsafe.
The security report released by Google shows that 650,000 people installed the Password Checkup extension. In the first month alone, Google scanned 21 million usernames and passwords and flagged over 316,000 as unsafe.
That’s 1.5 percent of sign-ins scanned by the extension.
When you consider there are billions of internet users who didn’t install the extension, imagine the scale of users that may be using unsafe passwords. You could be one of them!
If you want to check whether your login credentials have ever been compromised, you can go to haveibeenpwned.com and have a look just by entering your email ID.
The Password Checkup extension notifies a user when they are trying to log in to a website “using one of over 4 billion usernames and passwords that Google knows to be unsafe due to a third-party data breach”.
Google is using the extension as an experiment currently, but according to reports by 9to5Google, the Chrome-based bug tracker will be fully integrated into the browser soon.
Google performs the checks on user login details, backed by cross-referencing with the compromised database using encryption which also makes sure that no information is stored locally or remotely with Google.
Google isn’t the only one to deploy such a security feature.
A few months ago, Mozilla Firefox web browser also introduced its website checking tool called Firefox Monitor, which works like the website Have I Been Pwned. It also help users detect whether their login details have been compromised.
In order to totally remove the use of passwords to use Google services, the tech giant has also released a feature for Android users where they can log in to a service using just their biometric details like a fingerprint.
The feature is being rolled out to Android smartphones and will be compatible with phones that run on Android 7 Nougat and above.
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