Google on April 29 launched a new extension, ‘Password Alert’, which warns people whenever they type in their Google password on any site that is not a Google sign-in page.
Drew Hintz, security engineer and Justin Kosslyn, Google Ideas, posted on the Google’s Online Security Blog, that the Password Alert, which is now available on the Chrome Web Store, is aimed to prevent phishing attacks. However, it also aims to minimize the over use of Google password.
They wrote that it is designed to alert people while they use their Google password on those sites which are not operated by Google.
According to them, if anyone enters his/her password on a website that’s imitating accounts.google.com and aims to get personal details, he/she will receive a warning. It also provides people time to change their password before it gets misused.
It works by checking the HTML of the page to identify whether it’s a legitimate Google sign-in page or not.
According to Google, the password hacking is known as “phishing” which represents two percent of all Gmail messages.
The new tool is believed to be an additional attempt of security for Google’s users. The Password Alert sits among a number of tools which are aimed to safeguard user accounts. Other methods include two-step authentication and security key.
