Friday 24 February 2017

Google Chrome Users Should Take Precautionary Measures To Protect Themselves From Malware

Google Chrome

With a 57 per cent market share, Google's Chrome is by far the most popular most web browser in the world.

But its millions of users are being warned of a new cyber threat which could allow hackers to infect their PCs.

The Google Chrome scam poses a serious risk to users with criminals able to inject infected script into poorly-protected web pages.

According to cyber experts the virus-filled script rewrites the compromised website on the victim’s browser.

This makes the page unreadable, with a fake pop-up then used to try and convince users into downloading a patch to solve the issue.

The popup reads, “The ‘HoeflerText’ font wasn’t found,” - and, if you see this warning, DON'T download the suggested update.

It's thought the problem is currently affecting Chrome users on Windows-powered machines.

Speaking to Fox news, Tod Beardsley, research director at cybersecurity specialist Rapid7 said: “The ‘HoeflerText font not found’ malware lure, which targets Google Chrome users on Windows, continues to make the rounds via compromised WordPress sites,

“The prompt is disguised as a seemingly-legitimate popup sourced from the browser.

“So far, the attacks appear to be limited to compromised WordPress sites - a field that is, unfortunately, rich with targets.

“Chrome users should be aware that legitimate warnings from the Chrome browser will never appear as overlays to a web page.

"Specifically, Chrome does not offer any functionality for prompting for a missing font download, and all such prompts are sourced from malware or malvertising campaigns.”

It's thought that users America, UK, Australia and Canada are being hit by the scam.

This latest scam comes just weeks after Chrome users were hit by another attack.

A hack was recently discovered that can use the"Autofill" feature to allow cyber thieves to view user names, emails and even passwords.

The phishing attack, that can be used by hackers, appears fairly simple.

When a Chrome user inputs personal information on a webpage, the Autofill option will fill in every data text box based on your previous entries - this even happens to boxes that may not be visible on the page that's open.

This data can then be sent straight to the hacker without the user ever knowing.

To make things even more worrying, it could also be possible to gain access to credit card numbers and security codes using the same method.

The hack only works if users are tricked into filling in the fake form but it's still concerning.

To stop any chance of the issue affecting users, Chrome, Safari and Opera fans can switch off the Autofill setting or double check before filling in any online forms.

Google recently unveiled a major update to its popular Chrome browser on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

The new update boasts a dramatic speed increase – with page reloads now 28 per cent faster across all platforms.

According to Google, "When reloading a page, browsers will check with the web server if cached resources are still usable, a process known as validation.

"This typically results in hundreds of network requests per page issued to dozens of domains.

"On mobile devices, the high latency and transient nature of mobile connections mean that this behaviour can produce serious performance issues."

Google Chrome 56 could solve some of these issues.


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