Data breaches have become so common as of late that it has started to be seen as more or less inevitable that your password may end up getting stolen at one point or another. That can be a massive problem for many users because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up having them locked out of their accounts or having their personal details sold on the dark web among other major issues.
Google Chrome has a tool that basically tells you if any and all passwords that you use and have saved on the browser may have been compromised in a recent breech. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this tool might not be quite as effective as people would think, and the majority of users whose account details have been compromised would not even know that such a thing has occurred in the first place all in all.
This comes from research conducted at the University of Michigan which has revealed some truly concerning trends among a wide range of users with regards to their online security and the like. This research essentially involved hundreds of users, and each volunteer was shown data from three separate breaches that occurred with their own data being involved in at least one of the aforementioned breaches. The purpose of this was to figure out how many users knew that their data had been stolen and the number was shockingly low in that respect.
About 74% of volunteers had no idea that their personal log in data had been compromised due to a data breach that occurred. For one thing, these users didn’t know that the breach had occurred at all, and even those that used Google Chrome and it security tools had no idea that anything of this nature had happened. Not knowing that your password has been compromised makes the data breach even more dangerous since you would not end up taking any steps to mitigate the damage that might be caused.
Another thing that can be noted from this research is that most users don’t realize who the person to blame actually is. Only 14% of users said that the owner of the platform was responsible for their passwords getting out. Most said that they used the same password across multiple platforms which meant that they themselves were to blame, but the truth is that the owner of the platform is always responsible for any and all data breaches that occur since it was their lack of security that caused the data to get out in the first place.
All of this indicates that users need to be better informed about resources that they can use to figure out what kinds of steps they can take to acquire information that would prove vital to their long term online security. Platform owners also need to be held accountable about what they tend to do in this regard since their lax policies are making it rather difficult for the average user to enjoy any kind of actual security while they go about their normal day to day online tasks.
Read next: Researchers In France Have Utilized A Simple Computer In Order To Identify Malware In Other Devices
Google Chrome has a tool that basically tells you if any and all passwords that you use and have saved on the browser may have been compromised in a recent breech. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that this tool might not be quite as effective as people would think, and the majority of users whose account details have been compromised would not even know that such a thing has occurred in the first place all in all.
This comes from research conducted at the University of Michigan which has revealed some truly concerning trends among a wide range of users with regards to their online security and the like. This research essentially involved hundreds of users, and each volunteer was shown data from three separate breaches that occurred with their own data being involved in at least one of the aforementioned breaches. The purpose of this was to figure out how many users knew that their data had been stolen and the number was shockingly low in that respect.
About 74% of volunteers had no idea that their personal log in data had been compromised due to a data breach that occurred. For one thing, these users didn’t know that the breach had occurred at all, and even those that used Google Chrome and it security tools had no idea that anything of this nature had happened. Not knowing that your password has been compromised makes the data breach even more dangerous since you would not end up taking any steps to mitigate the damage that might be caused.
Another thing that can be noted from this research is that most users don’t realize who the person to blame actually is. Only 14% of users said that the owner of the platform was responsible for their passwords getting out. Most said that they used the same password across multiple platforms which meant that they themselves were to blame, but the truth is that the owner of the platform is always responsible for any and all data breaches that occur since it was their lack of security that caused the data to get out in the first place.
All of this indicates that users need to be better informed about resources that they can use to figure out what kinds of steps they can take to acquire information that would prove vital to their long term online security. Platform owners also need to be held accountable about what they tend to do in this regard since their lax policies are making it rather difficult for the average user to enjoy any kind of actual security while they go about their normal day to day online tasks.
Read next: Researchers In France Have Utilized A Simple Computer In Order To Identify Malware In Other Devices