Data Breaches, Passwords, and Chrome

It is not unusual to learn of some massive data breaches by faceless corporations. And it is not uncommon for most of us to be ignorant about what a data breach means to us individuals.

However, recently, I stumbled upon information Google Chrome provides if you look for it. Chrome will tell you if any of your saved passwords have been compromised in a data breach.

It searches your saved passwords and compares them to another database that holds at-risk information.

I found 30 out of 205 of my saved passwords have been potentially attained by hackers. It listed them out, so I can now go through each one and change them.

To be helpful, you must use the Google Chrome web browser and save passwords as you log into your various accounts. If you do not do this, the rest of the article is not helpful.

Here are the steps to discovering if any of your passwords have been compromised.

1. Open Google Chrome.
2. Click on the three vertical dots on the far upper right at the end near the top.
3. Click on SETTINGS near the bottom.
4. Look for the AUTOFILL section or search for it on the search box in the window’s center top.
5. Click the little triangle arrow to the right of the PASSWORDS option.
6. If it is your first time checking, a button should start the check. If it has already done the review, the hacked passwords should be listed.

On each line, you’ll see the compromised website, your user name, dots where your password is hiding, a blue button that, when clicked, will take you to the hacked website, and three dots. Underneath the three dots, you will see: “Show password,” “Edit password,” and “Remove password.”

When you click “Show password,” you’ll need to enter your computer’s login credentials. I use a PIN to log into my computer, so that is what I use. Yours may be a password or fingerprint scanner.

When you click “Edit password,” you can change the password saved in Chrome. It DOES NOT change the actual login password.

Should you click “Remove password,” you remove it from Chrome, not the hacked website.

I did discover that you can sign up for Firefox Monitor. You enter your email address, and it will tell you how many passwords have been hacked. I found 8 in Firefox. Some were the same as Chrome, and some were new. But that is only accounts that use the email address as the login. Many of my accounts use something else.

It is worth your time to go through these questionable passwords and change them. It is imperative to use the same password on accounts like your banking and credit cards. And it is always a good idea to change your passwords regularly.

First Published in the Lake country Echo, February 2021