Far too many people are footloose and fancy free with their passwords but account hacking is a real thing and Google are improving their password protection offerings from today. Now Google will not only tell you when a password you have stored with them is compromised but also how to fix it.
Passwords (and usernames) that you have stored in Chrome are sent back to Google “using a special form of encryption” where they are then checked against a list of known credentials to be compromised. Google cannot derive your username and password from this encrypted copy though so you don’t have to worry about Google reading your intimate emails.
If you have a compromised password on a website Google will notify you and instead of you then having to search and find the link to change your password they will now give you the link to straight there — this is by now supporting “.well-known/change-password” URLs.
This is not the only enhancement to password security Google have introduced today with an announcement their Safety Check will soon be available on mobile as well. This includes checking for compromised passwords, telling the user if Safe Browsing is enabled and checking whether the version of Chrome you are running has all the latest security protections. These are coming to both Android and iOS versions of Chrome.
Coming in Chrome 86 will also be Enhanced Safe Browsing to proactively protect you from phishing, malware and other dangerous sites. This has resulted in a drop by 20% of users typing their passwords into phishing sites on users who have enabled checking websites and downloads in real time.
It is great to see Google continuing to improve the security of their browsers, giving us more options to remain secure online. The problem is how many of you/us actually still use Chrome both on desktop and mobile? I know I don’t.
