Google announced a new tool for its Chrome browser on Wednesday that, it hopes, gives its users an easy way to shore up their security.
For
all of the (justifiable) panic over the high-tech capabilities of
sophisticated hackers, one of the biggest security traps for the average
person is still being tricked into sharing your password with a bad
guy. Sometimes that happens because you're fooled by a look-alike log-in
site. Other times, someone may hack another site where you just happen
-- against security advice -- to use the same password.
Neither
should happen with the new tool, a plug-in for Google's browser called
"Password Alert," which will warn you when you've entered your Google
password in a non-Google site. Unlike other security tools, such as
Google's Safe Browsing, it doesn't judge whether the site you're on is
malicious or not -- its sole goal is to make sure that you're only using
your Google password for Google services.
The company said in
the post that phishing attacks, in which users are tricked into giving
up their log-in credentials, can be successful up to 45 percent of the
time. And, the company estimates, roughly 2 percent of all Gmail
messages are phishing messages.
The tool evolved from one that
Google uses internally. It will work for Google and Google Apps for Work
accounts, the company said in an official blog post Wednesday.
According to the post, if you use Password Alert, a "scrambled" version
of your password is stored on your computer. It then uses that to
determine whether it should bring up a warning screen -- something it
should do any time you type your Google password into a non-Google
password field.
Google for Work users can also request to have
their account administrators set up the tool for all of an
organization's accounts.
It's no secret that passwords are a
pain. But while every account should ideally have its own password, the
important ones -- such as your primary e-mail and financial accounts --
really, really should have their own.
Google's new tool
stands as a good, simple reminder of that -- if you want reminding, that
is. To use it, you'll have to head to the Google Chrome store, starting
Wednesday, for the free download.
Source:
Washington Post
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