If you use Google Chrome then update your web browser(s) without delay and use a hidden feature to combat hacking.
This warning is a concern because two of the problems found by the cyber team at Google have been given the dreaded ‘zero day’ rating, which means that it’s highly likely the bug is already known to criminals and hackers.
A ‘zero-day threat’ or vulnerability is a newly discovered software vulnerability for which the developers have zero days to fix the problem because it already has potential to be exploited by hackers. When hackers take advantage of the software security flaw to perform a cyberattack, that is known as a ‘zero-day exploit’.
The latest version of Chrome fixed eight issues with the software, two of those were high risk. Google confirmed on its Chrome update page that it’s aware of exploits for these two issues codenamed CVE-2021-38000 and CVE-2021-38003 both issues have w been fixed, but users need to update their Chrome browser.
The Stable channel has been updated to 95.0.4638.69 for Windows, and for Mac and Linux the update will roll out soon.
A step-by -step guide on the website reads: “We’ll ask you to change your Google Account password if it might be unsafe, even if you don’t use Password Checkup.”
If you think your Google Account, Gmail or Google products have been hacked, then follow these steps to spot suspicious activity, and get back into your account, and make it more secure.
Sign in to your Google Account
If you can’t sign in, then go to the account recovery page and answer the questions there as best as you can.
Review your account activity
- Go to your Google account
- Select Security on the left navigation panel
- On the Recent security events panel select Review Security events and check for any suspicious activity:
- If you find activity that didn’t come from you, then select ‘No, it wasn’t me’. Then, follow the steps on the screen to help secure your account.
- If you did the activity, then select Yes.
- If you still believe someone else is using your account then go to think link to check whether tis been hacked https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/6294825#signs-account-hacked
Take more security steps
Make your account even more secure use s 2-step verification and/or install a more secure browser.
Extensions and plugins
There are several browser extensions that help you to see who is tracking your web-surfing but many of these invasively track themselves. These either help protect you or let you know who is tracking you – while not tracking themselves, or, if they do, it’s minimal..
– HTTPS Everywhere: You might still find yourself visiting a HTTP website that doesn’t support encryption by default? This plugin forces it to use encryption, which helps to protect your online purchases, payment details, and general web surfing from malicious actors who are eavesdropping for theft purposes.
– Privacy Badger: This extension, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), works on and Chrome. It monitors third parties and ad networks that try to track you through cookies and digital fingerprinting and can even auto-block them.
– Disconnect: Disconnect, is an extension available for Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, and Opera, can visually show you which websites are tracking your activity in real time. Invisible trackers that monitor you can also be easily blocked with Disconnect.
What else can you do?
Remember, it’s very hard to escape data collection and surveillance. When you use Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, or Twitter, be aware most of these online services track you and only recently started to adopt end-to-end encryption. Every big tech company – Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Apple – has had issues in the past over their contractors listening to user conversations recorded by their apps and assistants.
