GOOGLE has patched up a “critical” cyber flaw in its Chrome web browser which related to how people make payments online.
The tech giant found and fixed five security issues in the latest update, with the other four being given a “high” severity rating.
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The fifth – and worst – cyber flaw was discovered by Google’s own security teams, according to a Google Chrome blog post.
However, the tech giant is particularly hush-hush about security issues discovered internally.
The critical security gap is described as a ‘use after free’ in “autofill payments,” according to Google’s description.
A so-called ‘use after free’ is refers to the attempt to access memory after it has been freed.
In this case, it could cause the autofill payments feature to crash.
Or, in more extreme cases, can potentially result in a hacker pushing malware through the security gap – or even give a cyber attacker the ability to access your computer.
The security update is already available, and most Chrome installations should be updated to the new release automatically.
To check your browser is updated, simply click the three vertical dots on the right hand side of your browser > Help > About Google Chrome.
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After it’s finished downloading, you will need to click Relaunch to enter the new and updated browser.
But be warned, this will close your tabs.
Google has released updates for Chrome for iOS and Android as well, but these do not address security issues, according to the short release notes on the Chrome releases blog.
However, Google said it’s planning to update the entire Chrome ecosystem “over the coming days/weeks.”
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