Chrome Users Asked To Update Web Browsers After A Bug That Can Control Your Computer Is Found

Are you a Chrome user? If so, you’ll have to take note of this news.

It could save your computer’s life and all your sensitive information in it. This includes your huge collection of cat memes.

Serious Bug found in Google’s Chrome Web Browser 

There is a bug in Google’s Chrome Web browser that could let an attacker take control of your computer and steal all your sensitive information.

It affects only the desktop version of Chrome, leaving Android and iOS safe.

But here’s the latest update: Google has patched this serious bug.

With this, an advisory has been issued on Friday (30 Aug) by the Singapore Computer Emergency Response Team (SingCert), a unit of the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore, to urge users to update to the latest version (76.0.3809.132) of the Chrome Web browser. 

How To Update Your Web Browser

For some unlucky Chrome users, here’s how you can safeguard your computer:

Google will be rolling out the patch to its users in the subsequent days. So if you have enabled the automatic update function in your Chrome, you will receive the patch once your computer is connected to the Internet.

If you haven’t, you’ll have to manually update it yourself. You can check your Chrome version by selecting “About Google Chrome” from the Help menu.

From there, you can also see if you’re running the latest Chrome version (remember, it should be 76.0.3809.132)

“Critical Vulnerability”

According to the advisory, the bug is called a “critical vulnerability”.

This means that computers could be used to carry out malicious activities such as a denial-of-service (DoS) attack to interfere with websites and disrupt other online services.

Blink, the rendering software that generates the images and text of Web pages on the computer screen, was where the security flaw was found. It could be exploited if a user visits or is redirected to a specifically-crafted Web page.

The Google Chrome team stated that the vulnerability was discovered by researchers from the Chengdu Security Response Center of Qihoo 360 Technology. They were paid US$5,500 (S$7,600) by Google for disclosing the bug.

Phew. What a close shave that it was discovered.

While this sounds pretty serious, thankfully there aren’t any reports of the vulnerability being exploited, as reported by the Center for Internet Security, based in New York.

So folks, remember to update your Google Chrome Web browsers if you haven’t!