Hundreds of thousands of browser extensions are designed to help us save time, be more productive, and personalize our online experience.
And while most of them do what they’re supposed to, some are not designed to help you at all…
If you’re unfortunate enough to download a malicious browser extension without realizing it, it could harm your productivity, flood your work with unwanted advertising and lead to unwanted data breaches.
This is known as adware, short for advertising-supported software. It’s malware (malicious software) designed to bombard you with unwanted ads to interrupt and even redirect your intended activity, changing your search engine and sending you to affiliate pages when trying to make purchases, generating revenue for the extension’s creators.
A recent report from a cyber security company revealed that over 4 million of its customers had been attacked by adware hiding in browser extensions over the last couple of years. And often, people didn’t even realize they were under attack.
And there’s a darker scenario where these malicious extensions infect your computer with malware searching for and stealing sensitive data such as your logins or payment details.
Worst-case scenario: the malware can spread across your entire network.
To keep your business and its data safe from the risk of malicious browser extensions, it is critical that you only ever download them from reliable and trusted sources such as Google Chrome Web Store, Mozilla Firefox Browser Add-ons, and Microsoft Edge Add-ons. Read reviews and look at ratings.
And as a business owner, you need to consider controlling which extensions can be installed by your team. Write a policy addressing what extensions users can install in their browsers and rely on training to address user behavior.
Organizations must include extension management in their risk management processes. We can help with this, introduce up-to-date software protection, and implement (fun) security training for your team.
Meeting Tree Computer – Real support, for real people, is only a phone call away at (845) 237-2117. Call us any time.
