Last month only, Google Chrome removed 4 dozen malicious extensions that were posing as cryptocurrency utilities and were stealing wallet keys, crypto codes, and other important data from their users.
By the occurrence of these incidents back to back, it seems that Chrome browser has been under constant threat of dangerous content, appearing in the form of innocuous-looking extensions. As much as this is a worrisome situation for the users across the world, it is still good to know that Chrome is quick at taking proper actions against all such threats.
One reason that might have given birth to these spam extensions is the increased percentage of people resorting to the extension platforms. The demand is more, which paves the path for spammers and fraudulent organizations to creep in and introduce misleading and inferior quality extensions to the users. By willing them to install these extensions, these cybercriminals then gain lots of profit.
Google has to keep a vigilant eye on the type of extensions and filter out the developers who introduce these types of spam or malicious extensions to the Web Store. It is good to know that Google is taking this matter very seriously and is not shying away from constantly updating its spam policies.
The new criteria that Google has implemented are that the extensions with dubiously high ratings, suspicious reviews, and install counts will be removed from the Chrome Web Store.
All the developers are prohibited from manipulating users to post reviews or increase their ratings by giving incentives through illegitimate means. Play Store already implies this policy, and now, Chrome Web Store must implement it too.
Similarly, Google is going to ban all those extensions that send spam notifications or send messages on behalf of the user without ever letting him or her know about it. Many of these corrupt extensions send emails or messages without confirming, and this also opens a path for hackers to crawl in and steal user’s data.
Cybercrime is nothing new. Hackers find one way or the other to hack into a computer system and cause damage to the user or a high-profile organization. For this reason, Google must raise its cyber-security bar to give the users a safe experience.
Google has reported that these updated policies will be implemented from 27th August 2020.
Read next: Google Is Introducing An Update To Google Drive, Docs, And Sheets apps’ Permissions Window To Make File Sharing Less Complicated
By the occurrence of these incidents back to back, it seems that Chrome browser has been under constant threat of dangerous content, appearing in the form of innocuous-looking extensions. As much as this is a worrisome situation for the users across the world, it is still good to know that Chrome is quick at taking proper actions against all such threats.
One reason that might have given birth to these spam extensions is the increased percentage of people resorting to the extension platforms. The demand is more, which paves the path for spammers and fraudulent organizations to creep in and introduce misleading and inferior quality extensions to the users. By willing them to install these extensions, these cybercriminals then gain lots of profit.
Google has to keep a vigilant eye on the type of extensions and filter out the developers who introduce these types of spam or malicious extensions to the Web Store. It is good to know that Google is taking this matter very seriously and is not shying away from constantly updating its spam policies.
The new criteria that Google has implemented are that the extensions with dubiously high ratings, suspicious reviews, and install counts will be removed from the Chrome Web Store.
All the developers are prohibited from manipulating users to post reviews or increase their ratings by giving incentives through illegitimate means. Play Store already implies this policy, and now, Chrome Web Store must implement it too.
Similarly, Google is going to ban all those extensions that send spam notifications or send messages on behalf of the user without ever letting him or her know about it. Many of these corrupt extensions send emails or messages without confirming, and this also opens a path for hackers to crawl in and steal user’s data.
Cybercrime is nothing new. Hackers find one way or the other to hack into a computer system and cause damage to the user or a high-profile organization. For this reason, Google must raise its cyber-security bar to give the users a safe experience.
Google has reported that these updated policies will be implemented from 27th August 2020.
Read next: Google Is Introducing An Update To Google Drive, Docs, And Sheets apps’ Permissions Window To Make File Sharing Less Complicated
