Spyware found in Google Chrome extension stealing personal browsing information from users.

In this article, we are going to discuss Spyware found in Google Chrome extension. It is said that Such extension collected browsing information of more than 1.2 million users.

Security researchers have revealed that a popular Google Chrome extension with 1.2M downloads has been collection browsing information from the users. It is said that they are collecting such information for selling it to third parties.

A researcher with computer security, Christian Mariolini was able to discover the spyware in the webpage screenshot extension first in March of this year.

Christian said " We monitor our customer's networks for a sign of hacking. A few weeks ago, we found a strange pattern in the traffic of several companies. After talking with them, we found this plug-in which was installed on the computers that were behaving strangely".

He explained that the extension contained hidden codes that are able to save the browsing history and sends that data to server-based in US but the IP address of the server is registered to private individual living in Israel.

It is found that Webpage Screenshot is able to store numerous of potentially sensitive information that includes data from visited URLs, IP address, pages viewed, profile properties and other usage details.

A security firm that was launched in 2011 by CSIS ( Heimdal Security) also detected the spyware and analysed the operation of hidden codes.

Heimdal's website published a blog post that said, the hidden code won't get activated until one week after Webpage Screenshot is downloaded from the Google Chrome. This time is taken by Webpage screenshot to escape from Google's security checks.

This moment extension begins collecting all browsing information from the users and sends it to IP address 64.34.175.88 which is located in Serverbeach USA.

Google researchers were able to trace 200 such extensions from the Google Chrome browser and removed from Google's store.

Not only Google Chrome, but Google Play Store were also said to have malware and we need to be very careful what we let on to our devices. We need to take good precautions while browsing the internet these days. Use of VPN is the best way to protect ourselves from those hackers who try to steal our personal information.