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With so many reports of companies being hacked, keeping up with the news can be challenging. How can you know whether your accounts have been hacked? Your username and password may or may not be in the hands of hackers, but you probably have no idea whether or not that has happened.
A new tool from Google called Password Checkup will automatically check whether your password has been compromised by a known data breach when you log into a website. Password Checkup is a Chrome extension from Google that alerts users when they need to change their passwords due to a data breach for their accounts.
When you log into a website with a password using the Chrome browser, Password Checkup will check its databases to determine whether your account has been affected by a data breach. If it finds that your password has been compromised, you’ll see a notice that you should change your password.
From Google about Password Checkup:
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. Please reset your password. If you use the same username and password for any other accounts, please reset your password there as well.”
Google says that it knows of over 4 billion passwords that are unsafe because of data breaches, yet are still being used. The company hopes that Password Checkup will help people realize when their accounts have been revealed to hackers, and alert them to change their passwords.
How to Use Password Checkup
Using Password Checkup is easy.
1. Download Password Checkup from the Chrome Web Store.
2. Look for the Password Checkup icon in the toolbar at the top of your screen.
3. Look for an alert when you sign into a website using your password.
4. Change your password if you see an alert from Password Checkup.
What Else You Should Know About Password Checkup
In spite of its name, Password Checkup does not check the strength of your passwords. If you use “password” as your password on all your Internet accounts, then those accounts could be easily hacked. But checking the strength of passwords is not what this extension does.
This extension is new, Google just launched it this week, so expect it to evolve over time.
For Password Checkup to work you must log into a website using the password for your account. The extension doesn’t search all the passwords you’ve saved in Chrome to see whether they have been exposed by a hack, though that would be an excellent update to the extension.
If you get an alert from Password Checker that your password needs to be changed, do it immediately. Also, change the password of any other websites where you use the same password.
Some people might be concerned that by using Password Checkup they are exposing their passwords to Google.
See => Chrome Passwords Revealed – Helpful Tool or Hackers’ Delight?
Google addresses the security and privacy issues of Password Checkup:
Your usernames and passwords are incredibly sensitive. 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.”
If your password has been exposed due to a data breach, other information about you may also have been exposed to hackers. Unfortunately, there isn’t anything a Google Chrome extension can do about that. But by changing your password you are helping to prevent hackers from having further access to your account information.
If you have already re-set a password after a data breach or if you sign into an account that Google has no record of your password being hacked, you should see nothing from Password Checkup when you log in.
You can learn more about Password Checkup at the Google Security Blog: Protect your accounts from data breaches with Password Checkup. And you can check out this infographic from Google below that explains how Password Checkup works:
Your Thoughts
Do you stay up-to-date with news of security breaches? Do you know which of your accounts have been exposed by a hack? Will you be using Google’s Password Checkup?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
I sure would like to understand the security side of Google checking my Passwords. Does that feel a bit invasive? So in some mysterious computer way Google knows my passwords to compare with compromised ones.
PS. Always enjoy your content.
Hi Paddy, Good point, you certainly have a valid concern about Google knowing your passwords with Password Checkup. If you save your passwords using Google Chrome you would be facing the same issue.
Google does address this in their blog post, saying that the passwords are kept confidential and not revealed to Google.
If you are worried about your passwords being revealed to Google by Password Checkup, you do not have to use this extension. That way you won’t feel as if Google is being invasive with this extension.
Think I’m going to test drive this one Carolyn, thanks for sharing. In my opinion one cannot have too much internet security and protection. Password theft can be devastating to many years of hard work. Looking forward to testing this must have little tool. Again, thanks for your hard work.
Hi Deon, Yes, if you’re interested in keeping your password safe, you may want to test Password Checkup. I hope it works well to keep your passwords safe, Deon.
Hi Carolyn,
So far it’s working quite well Carolyn, thanks again for sharing, and have a lovely evening.