Phishing attacks are a major security concern, even if you’ve got a highly sophisticated security system, phishing attacks seem to find their way. The issue is quiet tricky, undoubtedly a hard nut to crack, however, Google has discovered a new way to fight off phishing attacks. Google is ready to unveil its new Chrome extension, known as Password Alert; the system issues an early warning to users if they’ve fallen prey to a phishing attack. Justin Kosslyn, a product manager at Google Ideas said about the warning system: “Phishing should be a real concern for everyone — journalists, activists, companies, or individuals. This is a useful and quiet line of defense against a real challenge.”
Here is a brief introduction as to what Phishing is for readers who might be unaware; a Phishing attack takes place when a group poses as a legitimate company in order to obtain your sensitive information such as passwords, social security numbers or credit card numbers. Here is how it works; users get an email from someone who might be posing as Google and asks for your account details. If you were to enter your password, your information could be exposed to a mischievous website.
However Google has got you covered through their extension; the company’s Password Alert will give you the following warning if you enter your password on the fake website, “Your Gmail password was just exposed to a non-Gmail page”. There on, the user is advised to immediately change their Google password. The warning is issued as soon as the user is finished typing the final character in the password, Password Alert works whether the user is signing up for a new account or is attempting to log onto a fake website. The system is designed to redirect users to a warning page and informing them that something has gone awry.
However, there is one shortfall, Password Alert is only able to scan passwords that have been successfully submitted, and therefore the user will only be alerted of phishing attack after it has taken place. The upside though is that the warning is issued quick enough to adopt security measures, that is change their password immediately.
While the current extension is only designed to work with Google , Password Alert could tighten security on non-Google accounts as well.
