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Chrome Can Tell You if Your Passwords Have Been Compromised (engadget.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Given the frequency of hacks and data leaks these days, chances are good at least one of your passwords has been released to the wild. A new Chrome extension released by Google today makes it a little easier to stay on top of that: Once installed, Password Checkup will simply sit in your Chrome browser and alert you if you enter a username / password combination that Google "knows to be unsafe." The company says it has a database of 4 billion credentials that have been compromised in various data breaches that it can check against. When the extension detects an insecure password, it'll prompt you with a big red dialog box to immediately update your info. It's handy, but users might wonder exactly what Google can see -- to that end, Google says that the extension "never reveal[s] this personal information."

2 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. So, how does it work? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How does it work? Does it keep a local database of 4 billion compromised credentials and checks against them? Or, let me guess, it uploads all of my passwords to a Google-controlled server to check if they are secure? Hmm, I wonder what could go wrong with this plan.

    1. Re:So, how does it work? by thegarbz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Let's try this experiment. But for real.

      I use Chrome on a work computer. I log in to some web sites and Chrome conveniently remembers my passwords for those sites.

      Last April I get a shiny new Google Pixelbook. (think: glorified web browser with 8 GB, core i5 and 128 GB SSD -- unless you put it in developer mode effectively rooting it so it can do useful things)

      Using the Pixelbook (which is Chrome OS, of course, and thus Chrome), I am able to go to my favorite web sites, and -- like magic! -- Chrome conveniently knows my login credentials to those sites.

      Hmmm didn't work for me. But then I didn't enable the completely optional feature of password synchronisation which is literally the second setting in Chrome underneath where you select your Google account.