Google has alerted billions of Chrome users that the browser has been successfully targeted by hackers, revealing 30 new security weaknesses, including seven that pose a heightened threat to users.
According to the company’s statement, the tech company is now releasing an update within the next few days to resolve the bugs, which affect Windows, macOS, and Linus.
It is unclear who hacked the firm, and whether any users’ security was put at risk.
Further hack details are now being restricted by the company until a preponderance of users is updated with a fix.
The company also said that they will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects also depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.
Users can manually update their browsers through the settings features, but Chrome will automatically update within a few days.
Google just announced the increase in hacks on Chrome and other browsers and several other tech companies have reported hacking vulnerabilities. Tech companies are merging together to fight threats, alongside the help of diligent users to stop future vulnerabilities.
Coca-Cola was also recently hacked by a Russian group, which is now peddling its data.
Stormous said it swiped 161 gigabytes of financial data, passwords and accounts before putting the information on the market for $640,000 or 16 million Bitcoin.
The group announced on Monday it had infiltrated the drinks company and got out without their knowledge. Coca-Cola said it had launched an urgent investigation and had already contacted the police, and on an alleged message from the group, which was subsequently posted on Twitter, it said, “You will win and we will win.”
It said the group had downloaded 161 gigabytes from the company, which it would sell for more than $640,000 or more than 16 million in Bitcoin.
Among the pilfered files, according to CISCO Advisor, are financial data, passwords and commercial accounts, and recent research has also established internet users’ passwords aren’t as secure as once believed.
The research said anything with six characters, regardless of whether numbers and symbols are included, can be cracked instantly, and the same goes for anything that is seven or eight characters but made up of just numbers or lower case letters, but the news doesn’t get much better for an eight-character combination.
But does Google sell that data anyway? Or are they just upset because someone robbed the info and didn’t pay a fee for the information? And I’m sure that this kind of hacking isn’t just restricted to Google, there must be even less secure platforms?
And to think that Internet Banking will soon be our only option, which is extremely frightening and sometimes the old fashioned way is the best.
The only real way to ensure that your password isn’t cracked for some 438 trillion years is to use 18 characters, made up of numbers, upper and lower case letters and symbols, then all you have to do is remember it without writing it down, and then change it regularly and to use a different password on every site you use, but of course, by the time you’ve keyed in that lot, you’ll have forgotten what it was you wanted to do.
Perhaps we should go back to using carrier pigeons, it would work for me, and of course, as soon as they resolve the problem, the people who are hacking the system will find another way around it – frightening times, but then Big Brother is watching all of us.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 