dangerous Archives

GOOGLE is warning Chrome users to update their browsers immediately due to a security bug that could let hackers hijack your computer.

The tech firm was forced to make an announcement because hackers managed to uncover the bug before Google found it – which is a major cause for concern.

ALAMY

Chrome users should update their browsers immediately

Google regularly fixes bugs that can exploit your computer software and reduce computer security.

But sometimes, these bugs are known as ‘zero-day’ – that’s when cyber-crooks work out how to exploit the glitch before Google itself.

It means the firm had zero days to prepare to tackle the problem because they didn’t know it could happen.

That’s the case with this latest bug, which means hackers have had a head-start – and that’s bad news for you.

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Cyber-criminals could exploit the vulnerability to remotely take over computers

Chrome users don’t need to panic though as they can simply update their browser to protect themselves.

Detailed information about what will happen if users don’t update their software has not yet been revealed.

Google said: “Access to bug details and links may be kept restricted until a majority of users are updated with a fix.

“We will also retain restrictions if the bug exists in a third party library that other projects similarly depend on, but haven’t yet fixed.”

However, some tech experts are theorising that the security vulnerability could allow hackers to implant malware without any warnings or popups, read files and potentially even take over computers remotely.

Chrome security researcher Justin Schuh wrote on Twitter: “Also, seriously, update your Chrome installs… like right this minute.”

[“source=thesun”]

Avril Lavigne in 2002, about a year before her supposed replacement by a lookalike. Photograph: Jim Cooper/AP

Not every article is written while wearing full hi-vis, Perspex goggles, hard hat and abseiling harness, with a police-quality Taser sleeping like a lazy boomslang next to the keyboard.

But this is one such story. That is because I have been tasked with reporting on Avril Lavigne, and “Avril Lavigne” has just been named the most dangerous celebrity search term on the internet.

Malware expert McAfee produces an annual poll, ranking the risk that searching for certain names will lead you to a malware-rich environment, leading to potentially mailicious websites and cybercriminals. This year, for Avril, the risk was 14.5%. It rose to 22.5% when users searched for “Avril Lavigne MP3s” (the fools don’t even know the MP3 format is low quality and now defunct).

In a crowded field, the Canadian tween-punk beat the likes of Bruno Mars, Carly Rae Jepsen, Zayn Malik and Sean Combs, who made up the rest of the top five.

Chad Kroeger of Nickelback, married to Lavigne in 2013. Photograph: Handout

This is not an in-with-a-bullet No 1 for Lavigne, who despite having done little of commercial interest in the past decade, sat at No 2 on last year’s list. Somewhere, for reasons known only to the vagaries of nostalgia and the dank breeding pods of web culture, Lavigne has become a kind of meme unto herself.

The internet already knows that Nickelback is the sound a comedy writer makes in their head when searching for a reference that means “bad music for numbskulls”. When Avril married lead singer Chad Kroeger in 2013, she was not only creating a twisted Canadian pop royal family, she was also marrying into a meme factory. She may have since divorced him, but when you marry memes, you marry for life.

Just as importantly, there is the ongoing attempt to expose her as a having died and being nothing more than a lookalike called Melissa. The theory, which began on a Brazilian fan site and seems to have spread to every corner of the internet, says that a young Avril, uncomfortable with her fame, began using a body double in certain situations. Then, at some point, the real Avril died. So her record label just kept going with the clone. After all, “Melissa” was written on her hand in a photo shoot – and who doesn’t write their own secret name on their hand in publicity shots? All of which was given credence by her near-fatal encounter with Lyme disease in 2015.

But perhaps Avril’s bad rep is merely about timing? She was peaking in popularity (with a very young Bebo-savvy crowd) at the exact point the internet itself was moving from a place of sinister coves and Pirate Bays into the glossy corporate content-engine we know and love today.

After all, as long ago as 2008, her video for Girlfriend became one of the first on YouTube to bust through the 100m views mark. This traffic, though, was itself allegedly driven mainly from a dodgy source – one fansite that encouraged users to follow a link which would keep the video open in their browsers, then refresh it every 15 seconds to spike the view-counter. The malware motherlode normally comes through similar shady sub-scripts – the saga continues.

Since you’re here …

… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too.

I appreciate there not being a paywall: it is more democratic for the media to be available for all and not a commodity to be purchased by a few. I’m happy to make a contribution so others with less means still have access to information.Thomasine F-R.

If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to support it, our future would be much more secure.

[“Source-theguardian”]

dangerous

Update your Google Chrome NOW – tech giant warns over dangerous bug ‘that lets hackers hijack your computer’

Avril Lavigne is the internet’s most dangerous star – but that’s nothing new

Since you’re here …

dangerous

Update your Google Chrome NOW – tech giant warns over dangerous bug ‘that lets hackers hijack your computer’

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Avril Lavigne is the internet’s most dangerous star – but that’s nothing new

Since you’re here …