spyware was hidden in the source code for the add “Webpage Screenshot» which makes it easier for the user to take pictures of the content on your computer screen (screenshot).
It was also written so that it was not activated until one week after the extension was installed and put into use, and was tricky to detect.
After the Swedish newspaper Dagens News revealed the matter, Google today announced that they will take down this section of code with immediate effect.
Discovered strange pattern
The plugin can be downloaded in Google Chrome market. It is marketed as a quick and easy solution to capture images of web pages. Such plugins or “plugins”, somewhat similar to apps. They are installed in the browser, but is developed by external firms.
When you download the extension Webpage Screenshot gets notified that the program “is given permission to read and modify all your data on the web pages you visit.”
And hidden in the source code for this program was thus a Spyware who gossiped even more. It was discovered by the Swedish security firm Sentor MSS. The discovery was made when the monitored data traffic among customers, and noticed strange patterns.
Sale information
DN has even checked the source code and confirming found by spyware that provides computer instructed to send information about which websites you visit to a server in the United States, every minute.
From there sold information about your surfing behavior on. This server is registered on a private person with an address in Israel.
According to DN also sent spyware data from sites with encrypted content.
Google stops addition
The case is not the police. According Sentor MSS who themselves were affected, there is little point in doing this because the police rarely have the capacity or expertise to investigate such cases.
Gustaf Brusewitz who is a Nordic communications manager of Google confirmed to DN that plugin is changed as a result of the newspaper’s disclosure.
Google Chrome has since its launch in 2008 has grown to become the world’s most used browser, according W3Schools, and is more than twice as large as Mozilla Firefox.
Read also: NRKbeta: Google should have stolen information and manipulated search results
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