Thwart Phishing Attacks with Password Alert

In the spirit of Keeping Safe Online month, I'd like to recommend the Google extension Password Alert to help thwart phishing attacks.

Phishing attacks generally come in the form of email or social media posts that appear to come from legitimate contacts and companies and request recipients to share personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers.

I attended a few conference sessions on cyber-security last week and learned that email passwords are worth far more than credit card numbers on the dark web as they provide scammers with access to your contacts. This allows scammers to use your account to phish your friends, family, coworkers, etc.

Password Alert works by providing warnings when you enter your Google password on any site that isn't a Google sign-in portal. While the main intent is to assist in defending against phishing scams, the extension also alerts you when you have reused your Google password to setup other accounts. While you are able to click "Ignore this time" to continue logging into these sites, it does subtly encourage the best practice of having unique passwords.

Two-step account verification remains the best method for protecting any of your accounts including Google because it requires scammers to have access beyond your password. Still, Password Alert is a great secondary tool for catching scammers before they obtain your account credentials.