Safe Internet Week: Google Offers Up Official Password Checkup Extension

February 5th was Safe Internet Day and Google is bringing users some great new features to help keep you credentials safe no matter where the web takes you.

Password Checkup

Data breaches happen more often than any of us care to admit. Keeping your login information safe is of the utmost importance in the digital age in which we live and Google is hoping to make it a little bit easier to keep your Google accounts secure.

There are plenty of third-party tools out there to check specific data breach events if you’re concerned a specific site has leaked access to your information but keeping track of all the compromised accounts is a daunting task that is near impossible.

With so many sites using Google credentials for login authorization, Google has launched the Password Checkup extension in the Chrome Web Store so that users can not only check for compromised accounts but proactively monitor future breaches should they occur.

We built Password Checkup so that no one, including Google, can learn your account details. To do this, we developed privacy-protecting techniques with the help of cryptography researchers at both Google and Stanford University. 

The Keyword

You can download the Password Checkup extension from the Chrome Web Store at the link below.

Learn more about how Password Checkup secures your account at the Google Security Blog.

Cross Account Protection

Next on the list of added security addresses the issue of Apps that use Google authorization for sign-in.

Cross Account Protection allows security events to be sent to third-party apps and site when detected by Google. No personal information is shared with the third-party, only the fact that an event has occurred and what type of event it was.

• We only share the fact that the security event happened.
• We only share basic information about the event, like whether your account was hijacked, or if we forced you to log back in because of suspicious activity.
• We only share information with apps where you have logged in with Google.
  
  
  

This gives the app or site the opportunity to reach out to you as a user to let you know an attack has been made on your account.

With the exception of developers using Firebase and Google Cloud Identity, the new Cross Account Protection must be voluntarily implemented. For more information on how to get started, head to the Google Developers Blog post.