Google Chrome Users Beware

This just hit my e-mail InBox from ZDNet:

Malware authors target Google Chrome

Scareware attack targets Google Chrome

 

I have found Microsoft Security Essentials to be basically useless, as the author of the posted article seems to have found. I use Kaspersky IS, have for years and have never had a problem. It does slow things down a bit, any really good anti-virus/malware program will, that's the point, it has to scan the object to see if any bad stuff is lurking inside. I buy it on eBay, typically $10-12 for a one year subscription. The only time I have ever had a problem was the last time I nuked and paved the CF-30 I put installing Kaspersky off until the load was finished. Halfway through, with only MSE protecting the computer, something got by, disabled MSE, and trashed the hard drive leading to another nuke and pave. Henceforth, its restore disk, Kaspersky, and then everything else.
CAP

 

Interesting; I've been using MSE for a year now and zero ickies on 7 machines. I even doublecheck it against several other malware suites and it never fails.

What kind of dirty sites are you going to Cap'n?

I wanna go there too... get good and corrupted.


As an aside... I'd like to kick Ed in the 'nads for this little nugget:

"There’s nothing inherently safer about alternative browsers—or even alternative operating systems, for that matter—and as users adapt, so do the bad guys."

This is completely false; finding ONE exploit for Chrome, or a hundred for FireFox... still much less than the hundreds of thousands for Windoze and IE. Hardly even in the same league of incompetent.

mnem
*Dirty ol' reptile*

 

I would be worried about it with parents and friends but If any tech savy user sees something like that it should be ignored.

I would have to say that Chrome is still better protection for this kind of stuff than IE.

This kind of stuff is starting to worry me. It seems like everything has some sort of software piggybacked onto it that you dont want and its getting far to easy for people to click on these scareware diagrams. Heck look at downloads at Cnet, the page it takes you to that pops up the download diagram has that banner ad that has the "DOWNLOAD NOW" button on it that people click thinking that its the correct download link.

 

Chrome's sandbox feature makes it a lot safer than other browsers: Chromium Blog: A new approach to browser security: the Google Chrome Sandbox

These "social engineering" attacks really shouldn't scare anyone who's been around the block. But I guess if you don't speak English, or you're an internet noob, it might be a problem. In which case you should be on a Mac.

 

@Core Team I use the Safe Run "sand box" in Kaspersky frequently, sandboxes aren't new but most consumers won't take the time to use them.
@ mnem I must confess that I do a little file sharing on occasion, the kind that might require a keygen and a patch. I had the problem whilst reloading a computer, I'm guessing you can connect the dots. As for the rest of the file sharing, not all video down loads involve unnatural acts between mixed species. Dwagons have dirty minds.
CAP

 

Truer words were NEVER spoken, my friend. >~~~~(;{

As for the downloads... did you mean not all video downloads anywhere, or not all YOUR video downloads?

mnem
"...study of alien languages... morphology, phrenology, syntax. Means you've got a talented tongue."
"I'm impressed. For a moment there, I thought you were just a dumb hick who only has with farm animals."
"Well, not only..."

 

you know i dont really use any protection on my machines. i just use chrome and thats it, my friends always ruin there pc and i have to reinstall it because its too far infected.

i dont use anything, i just browse with my brain. recently though i put on opendns its a level of security thats easy to do, free or cheap and in some cases speed your browsing.

hosts file is another thing. but it really comes down to how much p0rn you want to watch.

 

that made it sound as though its built in. but is this not the case, i have to install sandboxie right? cause cant find a sandbox option in chrome.

 

And Chrome protects you from something really nasty which a friend sends you in a email accidentally, right?
CAP

 

@xbox: the feature is built in
@capt: it depends on what they send you, but if it's something that executes nasty javascript in your browser, then yes it does. But if the Russians fool ya, well ...

Me personally I'm way more afraid of websites hacked to execute malicious javascript, because that way you can just be browsing, not click anything, do anything, or see any warning signs, and suddenly you get a virus or trojan. with chrome, you only have to close down the tab AFAIK, because each tab runs in a separate process in its own sandbox.

 

I'm using Mozilla Nightly (Firefox in alpha) 64-bit and IE 9 64-bit.
Security - MSE.
Chrome is tooooo slow (cursor slows down when pages load), uses too much memory (and has memory leaks). Tried to use it for several months and do not intend to install it again in near time
All laptops I sell have MSE installed and no problems.

P.S. Most secure configuration is limited user rights

 

I saw several others in this thread say Kaspersky is supposed to be good, and it'd probably be my second choice, but so far I've had pretty good luck with ESET NOD32 (It's included in ESET Smart Security 4, which also includes a firewall, antispyware, and some antispam thing that may or may not work but I don't know since I just use web mail.)