New Malware (virus) Infects Chrome and Targets Banks

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This will be the first of a series of posts I will call "IMOW" or In My Own Words.  The objective of this is to explain tech stuff such that it will be, hopefully, understandable to not-to-technically-inclined users.  Feel free to comment/criticize if you find me going too technical/geeky so I can adjust accordingly.


I came across this news item this morning and it is sort of alarming considering that I used to work for a large local bank and it may affect thousands of clients if it reaches our shores.  The news reports of a new malware that infects a computer when a user opens video that is supposed to be about the "Corona Virus".  This video is hosted on a compromised internet server which in turn infects everyone who attempts to open the Corona Virus video.  Security researchers named this malware "Grandoreiro".

Now, it the infected computer happens to be using Google Chrome and visits an internet banking site, the malware will generate an "overlay" on the banking website that is designed to allow the user to initiate and complete banking transactions while stealing information (such as the User ID, password, account numbers, PIN, etc.) in the background.

Although this particular malware has not been reported to be active locally, it makes sense to keep our guards up and make sure that our computers/laptops does not have this "Grandoreiro" malware.

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