Google is ready to fix your unsafe passwords as billions of online account passwords are leaked onto the internet.
The search engine giant has created a free add-on that allows Chrome users to check if their online credentials have been stolen.
Password Checkup was first released in 2019 as a free extension and it's designed to strengthen online security.
By scanning known databases, it pinpoints usernames and passwords which hackers have lifted from websites and made available to cyber criminals.
Password Checkup urges users to switch up their access information if it has been leaked.
Whenever you sign into a website, a pop up notifies you of being "one of over 4billion usernames and passwords" that have been fraudulently obtained and advertised by hackers.
Back in 2019, Google Jennifer Pullman explained the huge amount of usernames and passwords flagged during the application's scans.
"Since our launch, over 650,000 people have participated in our early experiment," she said.
"In the first month alone, we scanned 21million usernames and passwords and flagged over 316,000 as unsafe – 1.5% of sign-ins scanned by the extension."
If you find that your credentials have been stolen and sold online, it's important to immediately change them.
Even passwords, without usernames, can be an online safety hazard.
It's important to immediately change your log-in details to stay safe.
Hackers purchase enormous databases of compromised passwords from various sites because the letter combinations are often reused.
By forcing long lists of "known" hacked passwords - rather than trying random letters or numbers - they are more likely to obtain account access.
And this is one of many reasons that there has been a huge increase in scam calls, texts and emails in Ireland in 2021.
