Google Chrome users urged to update the app after the hack

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Google urged its users to urgently update one of its most used apps after the tech giant was hacked again this week.

Google is warning users to urgently update Chrome for the second time this week as the search engine giant confirms “more top-notch browser hacks.”

Once again, the tech giant advised its 2.6 billion users to update Chrome after publishing a new blog post that revealed four high-level vulnerabilities.

The Google Threat Analysis Group (TAG) said the hackers “created invalid code signatures” that would be considered “valid by Windows” but cannot be detected by the OpenSSL code used in security scanners.

TAG found that the OpenSUpdater line of software uses this new technique.

Described as riskware, OpenSUpdater displays ads on victims’ browsers and then installs unwanted programs on their PCs.

Most of the targeted victims of OpenSUpdater attacks are US-based users prone to download games.

The latest warning comes after Google informed its users of a security flaw in the browser that hackers could exploit on Monday.

While Google has argued it’s working hard to protect user safety, cyber experts say it’s time to leave Chrome behind.

This year, the company revealed the latest in a series of security holes in a September 24 blog post.

The post confirmed that Chrome’s 11th “zero-day” exploit of the year was found and impacted Linux, macOS, and Windows users.

This classification means that hackers could use the flaw to their advantage before the tech giant can fix it, significantly increasing the threat, according to Forbes.

Google reportedly kept the details of the hack under wraps to protect users after internal employees discovered the flaw.

According to Forbes, it was revealed a few weeks after Google admitted that it “accidentally” allowed the secret tracking of millions of users.

At the heart of Google’s latest tracking problem is the launch of a new Chrome API that detects and reports when a user is “inactive” or not actively using their device.

Google has defended the feature from criticism from security experts who say it can be easily abused by malicious sites looking for sensitive information.

“This feature, which we expect only to be used by a small fraction of sites, requires the site to ask for user permission to access this data,” Google told Forbes.

“It was built with privacy in mind and helps messaging applications send notifications only to the device the user is currently using.”

This article was originally published by The Sun and has been reproduced with permission.

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story advised readers to delete Chrome. This notice only applied to a small number of US users, and most Australian users were not affected at this stage.

Read related topics: Google

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