GOOGLE Chrome fans who like to style up their web browser have been warned that the tools they’re using may actually be stealing personal data.
Experts have uncovered various extensions masquerading as apps to change the colour and look of web pages.
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But they’re actually a front for hackers, who could ultimately steal your private login details.
Worryingly, these extensions have been downloaded millions of times, according to Guardio Security who uncovered the so-called “Dormant Colors” campaign.
“By mid-October 2022 there were at least 30 variants of this extension part of a campaign for both Chrome and Edge,” the firm’s Nati Tal warned.
One of the first things you may or may not notice is that the hack takes over your searches.
This means whenever you search something through Chrome, it’s redirected to a ripoff page made to look like Google search.
And so, fraudsters can sneakily earn money off the back of any purchases you make as an affiliate.
But crucially this is an invasion of privacy and could be used for much worse.
“At the end of the day, it’s not only affiliation fees being collected on your back, this is your privacy as well as your internet experience being compromised here, in ways that can target organizations by harvesting credentials and hijacking accounts and financial data,” Tal explained.
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“No extension that makes a fine-looking website look dark and ugly is worth it…”
Campaign ‘still up and running’
Experts say the campaign is still up and running, as hackers are sneakily developing similar extensions all the time.
The extensions use very general names, but the ones experts have found so far go by the names of:
- Action Colors
- Power Colors
- Nino Colors
- More Styles
- Super Colors
- Mix Colors
- Mega Colors
- Get colors
- what color
- Single Color
- colors scale
- style flex
- Background colors
- more styles
- Change Color
- Dood Colors
- refresh color
- imginfo
- WebPage Colors
- hex colors
- soft view
- border colors
- colors mode
- Xer Colors
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
