Google appears to be ever advancing their commitment to security by giving users of their products and services more and more ways to help protect themselves from all manner of ill intent involving Google accounts, products, or services, as well as people’s personal and private information and data. This new extension from Google that users can install right into Chrome focuses on the security of the Google account password and aims to prevent people from getting their passwords phished/stolen. It’s called password alert, and the title of the extension already explains what the goal of its existence is, a simple extension which seeks to alert users if their password is about to be phished by a non-Google site.
Password alert can presumably work in two different ways, one of which seems to be the more important of the two. Google has set the extension up to make attempts at alerting users when they’re about to enter their password into a fake Google site which is asking for login credentials. Receiving such an alert before the deed is done is certainly something that many people could surely benefit from. The extension can also alert users after the fact, meaning if they’ve already just entered their password into a fake Google site, Password Alert will alarm customers that a site is trying to phish their password and makes a suggestion that it immediately be changed.
While knowing about the issue afterward is not as useful as stopping the phishing act beforehand, it’s better than having no clue at all and potentially coming into contact with future risk and having your personal information accessible by an unknown party. While the extension seems to be a great idea from Google, some seem to believe that this is a feature that should already be baked right into Chrome from the start, arguing that those who may be more subject to risk of a phishing attack may not be looking for extension to install in the first place. Whatever the case, if you use the Chrome browser and you use a good amount of Google services which your account and password are tied to, this is an extension that is recommended.