This expert warns about the increase in scams and hacking attempts via your search browser.
If you use Google Chrome, but also Microsoft Edge, you may have or will be exposed to another hacking attempt. Proofpoint, a cybersecurity company, is warning internet users about the surge in search browser scams. Hackers are exploiting a flaw that can affect all computers, updating your browser, particularly the most famous of them Google Chrome.
How do hackers do it? Experts warn that the scam is based on a well-known but apparently still effective technique, the false request for a browser update. Under the cover of a pop-up or alert on your browser, they try to fool you into believing that there is a necessary update.
This fake update actually aims to secretly install malware and viruses on computers. The best known of this malware is SocGrolish but it often hides behind the download of a simple file hidden behind the name “Update.js”, Update for “update” in French. If Anglo-Saxon users have been largely targeted, the French are not spared, warns Proofpoint.
Experts are sure, these attacks can be extremely effective by playing on the well-known name of your search browser. They make you easily believe that this little message comes from a trusted source. Everything is done to fool you since the messages go so far as to reproduce the small windows that you often see on your browser: advertising message, info alert, system adjustment message, etc.
There is a solution to protect against this: vigilance. Above all, remember that search browsers will never ask you to update the system via this type of message. On Google Chrome for example, everything happens in your browser settings at the top right. A message may even appear: “Update” often in red, telling you to install it and then restart Google Chrome. Updating your system remains the best way to protect your computer from the latest attacks.
