There’s a good chance that some of the more tech-savvy among you reading this may have one or more browser extensions installed on your system. Offering various tweaks to how your internet gateway operates, I know I have a few that make the experience an overall smoother ride. – If you do, however, have more than a few more ‘creative’ choices installed on your system, then you might want to pay attention as in a report via TechSpot, security researchers have identified 28 browser extensions, for both Edge and Chrome, that has been downloaded millions of times!
Browser Extensions Found Containing Malicious Code
In terms of what this malicious code does, it varies depending on which particular extension you have installed. By and large, however, they’re all looking to do the same thing; phish your data, redirect you to advertising sites, and downloading even more malware onto your PC.
So, get that extension tab open and, depending on what browser you utilize, make sure you don’t have any of the below currently installed:
CHROME
- Direct Message for Instagram
- DM for Instagram
- Invisible mode for Instagram Direct Message
- Downloader for Instagram
- App Phone for Instagram
- Stories for Instagram
- Universal Video Downloader
- Video Downloader for FaceBook™
- Vimeo™ Video Downloader
- Zoomer for Instagram and FaceBook
- VK UnBlock. Works fast.
- Odnoklassniki UnBlock. Works quickly.
- Upload photo to Instagram™
- Spotify Music Downloader
- The New York Times News
EDGE
- Direct Message for Instagram™
- Instagram Download Video & Image
- App Phone for Instagram
- Universal Video Downloader
- Video Downloader for FaceBook™
- Vimeo™ Video Downloader
- Volume Controller
- Stories for Instagram
- Upload photo to Instagram™
- Pretty Kitty, The Cat Pet
- Video Downloader for YouTube
- SoundCloud Music Downloader
- Instagram App with Direct Message DM
What Do We Think?
Seeing malware contained within browser extensions certainly isn’t anything new and, by and large, it does fall into the category of ultimately being careful what you click on. Yes, some of them can definitely be very useful, but as you can see above, often you can get more than you bargained for if you get a little too keen to bespoke your online experience.
So, in a nutshell, if you do have any of the above extensions installed, you’ll want to get rid of them ASAP!
What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!
