Aussie Google users under threat, money and data stealing bugs discovered
By Kwedu News
Global digital giant, Google, has warned some Australian internet users of the discovery of eight bugs that could be used by cyber criminals to steal data and money from internet users with outdated web browser, Chrome.
The warning also comes as thousands of data broker websites collect and store personal information which they sell to other users upon request.
In an article, Chloe Whelan says there are several removal services for one to reduce their data presence on the internet which could be exploited by cyber criminals, but its difficult to completely delete oneself.
According to Whelan, Google said Aussie users still on the older versions of its internet web browser, Google Chrome, are at high risk of being hacked as eight (8) bugs that could be exploited by cyber criminals were discovered by expert security researchers.
“Google has issued an urgent warning to some users after developers discovered eight high-risk bugs on its platform that could be exploited by cyber criminals to steal money and data.
“The tech heavyweight recently released an update revealing that users on older iterations of its web browser Chrome were at high risk of being hacked due to security weak spots.
“The company will not publish details about the bugs, which were identified by several teams of experts, until enough users had updated the platform for fear of alerting scammers, Google’s warning said,” Whehan wrote.
Updating one’s Chrome web browser to the latest version with security to block the bugs would protect the internet users.
“Users will not have to worry about the bugs once they have updated Chrome to its latest version — 111.0.5563.110/.111 for Windows or 111.0.5563.110 for Mac.
“To check if your browser needs to be updated, open Chrome, select ‘more’ (the three dots in the right hand corner), head to settings and then ‘About Chrome’.
“If your browser needs to be updated, it will ask you to relaunch. Otherwise, you’re in the clear,” Whelan wrote.
Some of the bugs are believed can open access to one’s list of passwords saved and others allow ‘out-of-bounds memory access’ to human interface with devices’ touchscreens, keyboards and mice, which are a serious threat to data security.
Whelan says Google Chrome’s vulnerability comes amid an increase in Australians being targeted by hackers.
Australian personal information stolen rate, as Whelan says, was 20 times above the global average in December 2022 as noted by Surfshark.
Latest such related attack targeted financial
company, Latitude, which has since suspended all its online platforms, heavily affecting its clients and trading partners.
Latitude had more than 300 000 of its clientele data stolen.
“This included Medicare numbers, copies of passports and passport numbers, Latitude confirmed.
“The company said of the stolen data that approximately 96 percent was copies of driver’s licences or driver’s licence numbers, about three per cent was copies of passports or passport numbers and about 1 per cent was Medicare numbers,” Whelan wrote.
As investigations into the cyber attack intensify, the company anticipates that more information affecting its current and past customers could have been stolen.
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