Google Chrome’s Password Alert Extension Protects Against Phishing

Installing antivirus and other protection software is all well and good but nothing can really protect you from your own mistakes if you accidentally input your credentials in the wrong login box. Google wants to improve their users’ privacy in regards to phishing attempts with Password Alert – a Chrome extension that notifies them whenever they input their account passwords into non-Google websites.

After it is installed, the extension fires up when you successfully log into your Google or Google for Work account, and then it saves a reduced-bit thumbnail of your password into the browser’s local storage. It then compares that password to any other password that you enter on other websites and alerts you accordingly. Naturally, if you’re using the same password across multiple accounts, this little extension might become more of a nuisance than a help. This way, Google is encouraging us to use different combinations, which is not exactly a bad idea.

According to the company’s Director of Security for Google Apps for Work, Eran Feigenbaum, a similar tool has been used internally by Google for a few years now. The extension’s code is open source, which means that other sites will be able to adapt it and use it for their own services.

Will you install this Google Chrome extension?

Thank you Techspot for providing us with this information.