Google Chrome will now let you know if your password was compromised in a data breach
Hacking has become frequent these days and experts have revealed various ways that users today could be vulnerable to such attacks. In an attempt to tackle this issue, Google has announced that the new Chrome update will notify you if your password has been hacked.
As per the latest Google Chrome 79, it will let you know if your password has been stolen. Google CEO Sundar Pichai also tweeted about the update.
How does it work?
Google Chrome will store your password and username as a hashed and encrypted copy and it will have a secret key that will only be known to Google. The compnay in the blog says, “When you sign in to a website, Chrome will send a hashed copy of your username and password to Google encrypted with a secret key only known to Chrome. No one, including Google, is able to derive your username or password from this encrypted copy.”
When some passwords and usernames are exposed in a data breach, Google will cross check if you are also a part of that breach, without giving out any of your information to the website. This technique is called private set intersection with blinding. If your password and username is compromised, it will notify you about it and will request you to change it.
To help keep you safe online, @googlechrome will now warn if your username & password have been compromised when you type them into a website. We’re also enhancing phishing protections to be real-time on desktop to alert you when visiting malicious sites. https://t.co/XuStf4sKQP
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) December 10, 2019
A few months back, the company reported that 1.5 percent of the user passwords are compromised, i.e. over 316,000 passwords. It also suggested that users are unaware of the risk reused and unsafe passwords pose to their financial, government, and email accounts.
Along with password protection, the new update will also improve phishing attack protection. The latest Chrome browser update will start rolling out today.