On Tuesday, Google announced a new tool to help users. The Chrome Web Extension called “Password Checkup” which runs in Chrome all the time as you go about your daily web browsing and checks passwords you enter on all sites against a database of known compromised passwords. Password Checkup isn’t a password manager, a gauge of how weak or strong your passwords are, or a source of advice. It just sits quietly until it detects a credential pair that is known to be exposed, and then it shows a warning. That’s it. Hasso Plattner Institute’s Identity Leak Checker, HaveIBeenPwned are just but a few of the trusted databases that you can use to check if your Password has been compromised. With this tool, Google is promising is to perform this process automatically via Chrome, each time you visit a site. The Chrome extension will pop up and ask you to change your password if it detects a credential that has been stolen or one that’s been published to the web, after cross checking with a few of the aforementioned databases.
Parting Shot
At the end of the day, Mozilla, Chrome, Edge and every browser out there just wants to differentiate itself, get you hooked and comfortable using it. At this point, they’re all throwing in little incentives to try appeal to you. With additional features like a password locker, Google Autofill, password generator, tighter intergration with Google services and now breach detector, Google’s quietly building in value to convince you to stick with its browser rather than try alternatives.
