Massive spying on users of Google’s Chrome web browser shows new security weakness

  • Google said it removed more than 70 of the malicious add-ons from its official Chrome Web Store after being alerted by researchers last month
  • Those free extensions siphoned off browsing history and data that provided credentials for access to internal business tools

The spyware campaign attacked users through 32 million downloads of extensions to Google’s Chrome web browser. Most of these extensions purported to warn users about questionable websites or convert files from one format to another. Photo: Reuters

A newly discovered spyware effort attacked users through 32 million downloads of extensions to Google’s market-leading Chrome web browser, researchers at Awake Security told Reuters, highlighting the technology industry’s failure to protect browsers as they are used more for email, payroll and other sensitive functions.

Alphabet’s Google said it removed more than 70 of the malicious add-ons from its official Chrome Web Store after being alerted by the researchers last month.

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