Google presents new features in Chrome to control malware attacks

Google has recently announced three major changes in its search engine ‘Chrome’ to improve the browser’s malware detection and removal capabilities. These new changes will block websites that sneakily redirect users to unintended URLs without the user’s consent.
 

The three features that are introduced in Chrome are given below –

· The most important feature that introduced in Chrome 64 is that will block URL redirection triggered by a script written inside iframes (HTML component used for generating pop-ups) embedded in a webpage. Instead, Google will ask the user if they want to be redirected to a new page.

· Most of the users install plug-in such as ad blocker. These kinds of plug-in help to block the pop-ups that are generated by visiting a website. However, hackers bypass these ad blockers simply by opening the advertisement in a completely new tab. Chrome 65 will block the redirect and will further show an alert to the users.

· The third feature that is launched is named as the Abusive Experiences Report. In this feature, Google will provide blacklisted sites that are suspected to use misleading UI elements such as play button which on clicking will redirect the user to a new webpage without their consent.

The website owners who have registered their site with Google will receive a warning about the misleading UI elements on their website and have them to fix it. If the website owner fails to fix these issues then from January 2018 these elements will get blocked via Chrome’s built-in pop-up blocker.

Commenting on the same, Ankush Johar, Director & Partner at Infosec Ventures, a venture fund investing in Cyber Security Innovations, says, “It is a commendable step taken by Google which will prevent various malicious websites from infecting the system but as thrust upon as this is, website owners will now be in great pressure of losing reputation in case a hacker manages to infect their website and Google block their website to protect its users. On the other hand, consumers cannot take this as an absolute form of security. Hackers will always fiddle around and find ways to trick you and assuming Chrome will protect you from every attack will only make things easier for hackers.”