We are out in the field and see the trends that crop up and we have seen an abundance of malware in users browsers like Chrome and Firefox. The prevalence of these attacks means you should be vigilant and have your browsers checked.
Symptoms of browser hijacking
Evidence or effects of these bad extensions can be evident with the following symptoms:
- Slow browser or computer
- Hijacked search engine (very typical)
- Redirecting user traffic
- Collecting personal information
In June 2020 Reuters published details of a newly discovered security weakness found by Awake Security. Awake discovered 111 malicious extensions. This was part of a massive global surveillance campaign to spy on and steal users data. Over 32 million downloads of these malicious extensions were reported.
When Google was notified and more than 70 malicious add-ons were removed from its official Chrome Web Store after they were notified by Awake Security. the story from Reuters can be found here.
What to do about bad browser extensions
- Keep browser up to date
- Fix search engine redirects
- Remove all extensions except the ones that are used and trusted