New malware ends up popping up rather frequently, and the latest malware campaign that has been going around has ended up impacting pretty much every major web browser out there. This includes Chrome, Firefox, Edge and even smaller browsers like Yandex. The malware has been given the name Adrozek, and the thing that truly manages to set it apart is that it’s the latest addition to a malware family that has actually done quite a bit of damage starting in May of this year and by August tens of thousands of devices were reporting being infected with the malware every single day.
While the pandemic tends to get all of the big headlines, this proves that there was a digital pandemic going on as well that many people didn’t even know about. The malware earns revenue for the malicious actors that created it by using the redirect feature to take users to a webpage where malware laden ads would be shown to them. This also means that the malware tends to spread extremely quickly, as its very function reinforces its own propagation and ensures that the highest possible number of devices would end up getting infected by it so much so that Microsoft reported that hundreds of thousands of devices have gotten infected by the malware by September.
It is essential that the major tech companies take note of this issue and try their best to fix it before it ends up getting out of hand. Adrozek’s masking techniques are quite sophisticated as the file that it uses to install itself onto devices has a very realistic name and a file extension that ends with .exe which makes it so that people end up trusting it, something that makes it even more essential that tech companies work together to get rid of the malware for good.
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While the pandemic tends to get all of the big headlines, this proves that there was a digital pandemic going on as well that many people didn’t even know about. The malware earns revenue for the malicious actors that created it by using the redirect feature to take users to a webpage where malware laden ads would be shown to them. This also means that the malware tends to spread extremely quickly, as its very function reinforces its own propagation and ensures that the highest possible number of devices would end up getting infected by it so much so that Microsoft reported that hundreds of thousands of devices have gotten infected by the malware by September.
It is essential that the major tech companies take note of this issue and try their best to fix it before it ends up getting out of hand. Adrozek’s masking techniques are quite sophisticated as the file that it uses to install itself onto devices has a very realistic name and a file extension that ends with .exe which makes it so that people end up trusting it, something that makes it even more essential that tech companies work together to get rid of the malware for good.
"End users who find this threat on their devices are advised to re-install their browsers. Considering the massive infrastructure that was used to distribute this threat on the web, users should also educate themselves about preventing malware infections and the risks of downloading and installing software from untrusted sources and clicking ads or links on suspicious websites.", explained Microsoft 365 Defender Research Team in a blog post. Adding further, "Users should also take advantage of URL filtering solutions, such as Microsoft Defender SmartScreen on Microsoft Edge. Configuring security software to automatically download and install updates, as well as running the latest versions of the operating system and applications and deploying the latest security updates help harden endpoints from threats."
Read next: Researcher unveils a free tool that can reveal the pixelized passwords, creates a security threat
