Hot on the heels of some of the most sophisticated Gmail attacks aimed at parting users from their passwords, and news that a massive 2.8 million device botnet is powering brute force password hacking attacks, comes the news that you may, or may not, want to hear: Google wants you to let AI change your Chrome passwords automatically. Here’s what you need to know.
Chrome Update—Google Brings Automatic Password Changes To The AI Party
Password compromise is everywhere; there’s no other way of saying it. Cybercriminals want your password because they want access to your accounts to enable them to use your sensitive data and, ultimately, profit from the treasures that they find. Whether by way of phishing attacks or malware, hardware hacking or simply gaining physical access to your device, your password is being targeted. Which is why most security experts recommend the use of password managers as a way to create stronger credentials and use them in the most secure way. Google is no exception, with the Chrome browser password manager available to 3.5 billion users.
One of the ways that password managers can help to keep your credentials safe is to spot when they have been compromised and let you change them as quickly as possible. First spotted by the eagle-eyed Leopeva64 on X, Google is introducing a rather shocking new function for users of Chrome: the ability to let AI change your passwords for you automatically. Now, I’ve called this shocking for a reason, and not everyone will agree. Some people love the idea of letting AI take the reigns with mundane tasks, while others shrink away in revulsion at the very notion of allowing AI into their online lives. I suspect both will be shocked by this move, some in a good way, others less so.
How To Try The Chrome Automated Password Change Feature Now
Leopeva64 said: “Another AI-powered feature is coming to Chrome, Automated password change.” The description mentions that “when Chrome finds one of your passwords in a data breach, it can offer to change your password for you when you sign in.”
It appears that this involves not only helping you along with the process of changing a compromised password but generating the password for you as well. What it doesn’t mean, and this is key, is that Chrome will just let the AI loose in the background to change your credentials. The feature is currently in the experimental stage, so users of the Chrome Canary version can try it out by changing the #improved-password-change-service that can be found in chrome://flags/ to enabled. Personally, I think this is a good thing as it makes the whole process more manageable, and let’s be frank, AI is likely to do a much better job of creating a decently strong password than you. Of course, you don’t have to enable it when it finally reaches the production version of Chrome. I have reached out to Google for a statement.
