Technology

Several of the internet users are still using compromised credentials

Written by Muneeb Ahmad ·  57 sec read >

A research from Google has found that several internet users are using compromised usernames and passwords for website logins through Google Chrome.

Google recently conducted a study on its users to find out the ratio of vulnerable logins that happen because of the compromised credentials. The study found out that as much as 1.5% of website logins on the internet used compromised login details. The study collected the data from 670,000 of its users from across the globe and scanned 21 million usernames and passwords. It found out that about 1.5% of these logins used compromised credentials to login on 746,000 domains.

“Anonymous telemetry reported by our extension reveals that users reused breached credentials on more than 746,000 distinct domains. The risk of hijacking was highest for video streaming and adult sites, where between 3.6% and 6.3% of logins relied on breached credentials,” the report read.

The study sourced its data with the help of a Google Chrome extension. Password Checkup Chrome browser extension, the extension in-focus, anonymously checked the user’s credentials with the database of compromised credentials to check which of the compromised credentials were still being used. It found out that the big websites which had a large number of logins saw a lesser number of compromised credentials compared to the websites which had fewer logins.

When prompted with a warning, about 26% of these users started using new credentials while 25.7% of the individuals continued with their previous credentials. Online security and data privacy is one of the hot topics as IT continues expanding to new horizons. If you want to download the Chrome extension, you can do so from the Chrome web store.

Written by Muneeb Ahmad
I love to talk about global tech-happenings, startups, industry, education and economy. Get in touch: muneeb@techjuice.pk. Profile