The early days of the Internet were only comparable to the Wild West, you know, digital. And instead of scouting cities, there was Limewire. And instead of guns and bullets, it was copies of LinkinPark_Numb.mp3. Either way, it was a dangerous time to roam the web unprotected, as malware, Trojans and the like lurked around every turn, ready to infect your home computer. The very, very tangential point that I’m trying to make may be strained, but I hope you got it.
The internet seems like a much safer place these days – at least when it comes to firewalls, antivirus, and two-factor authentication, our daily outings on the net don’t seem particularly dangerous. However, there are still obscure software that we sometimes need to watch out for.
Check out this former hacker explaining how to protect yourself there.
More recently, cybersecurity experts warned us about a new malware called ChromeLoader, which despite its rather innocuous name, can do nasty things. As reported by PC Gamer, researchers at Red Canary say ChromeLoader can take over your browser and manipulate your search results in an effort to trick you into clicking on malicious sites and steal your user data. Yeah, that’s gonna be a hoot from me.
Despite its title, ChromeLoader doesn’t just affect PCs and those using Google Chrome, it also affects operating systems like Safari. According to Red Canary, “ChromeLoader is delivered via an ISO file, usually masquerading as a cracked torrent or video game. It appears to be spreading via pay-per-install sites and social media platforms such as Twitter.
“Once downloaded and executed, the .ISO file is extracted and mounted as a drive on the victim’s machine. Inside this ISO is an executable used to install ChromeLoader, as well as what appears to be a .NET wrapper for Windows Task Scheduler. This is how ChromeLoader maintains its persistence on the victim’s machine later in the intrusion chain. »
There’s more to read on Red Canary’s blog if you’re particularly worried, but as PC Gamer notes, the best protection you can afford is simply to avoid torrent sites. If you go there, be extremely careful with what you download and make sure to comb through the content of the downloads as best you can.
Comments are closed.