We recently covered in a post related to cyber-threat that more than 770 million email credentials of users were leaked, as reported by a renowned security researcher. The database of all the leaked accounts were made available on a service named “Have I been Pwned” using which you could check if your account had been compromised and then take necessary action.
With internet privacy and safety time and again being proved as a myth, Google has made it simpler to detect if any of your account has been compromised or your data has been breached.
Password Checkup is a tool which can be added to Google Chrome via an extension and what it basically does is monitor the username and password you enter on every website you login to, and if those credentials have been found to be leaked according to Google’s database, you will be notified and warned about the same. You can then change your password to a safer one. Google suggests that if you’re using the same password on a different website too, make sure you change that one as well.
This way, you can detect if your data has been compromised and take necessary action as soon as possible to prevent any unwanted mishap. Unfortunately, data breaches have become common and the only way to attempt to stay immune is to keep changing your password every once in a while and most importantly, not to have the same password for multiple websites or services.
Google is emphasizing on privacy and claims that only you know if your account credentials are compromised or not. Also, since the database is updated regularly, you will be intimated even if your account or data gets breached in the future. You can download the extension from the Chrome store on the web browser for PC and Mac for free and make sure your online data is safe.
Alternatively, if you do not use Google Chrome, Firefox Monitor is a similar service that lets you know if your account has been involved in a data breach. You just need to visit Firefox Monitor to get started.