NCC Warns Nigerians to Remove 5 Google Chrome Extensions on Their Phone, Laptop Immediately
- The NCC has urged Nigerians who use five Google Chrome extension apps to uninstall them immediately
- The Communications warns that the apps have been designed to steal users' information
- Interestingly, the apps listed have been downloaded over 1 million times by users around the world
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The Nigerian Communications Commission’s Computer Security Incident Response Team (NCC-CSIRT) has identified five malicious Google Chrome Extensions.
According to the commission, the extensions surreptitiously track online browser activities and steal users' data.
NCC announced this in a press release posted on its website and obtained by Legit.ng.
Source: Facebook
Names of the Apps
The five malicious extensions are McAfee Mobile, Netflix Party, Netflix Party 2.
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Others are Full Page Screenshot Capture Screenshotting, FlipShope Price Tracker Extension, and AutoBuy Flash Sales.
NCC warnings
According to NCC-CSIRT the five google chrome extensions identified have a high probability and damage potential, have been downloaded more than 1.4 million times, and serve as access to steal users’ data.
Part of the advisory from NCC reads:
“The users of these chrome extensions are unaware of their invasive functionality and privacy risk. Malicious extensions monitor victims’ visits to e-commerce websites and modify the visitor’s cookie to appear as if they came through a referrer link. Consequently, the extensions’ developers get an affiliate fee for any purchases at electronic shops.”
The Vanguard reports NCC also stated that although the google team removed several browser extensions from its Chrome Web Store, keeping malicious extensions out may be difficult.
The NCC-CSIRT, thus, recommended that telecom consumers observe caution when installing any browser extension.
The warning continues:
“These include removing all listed extensions from their chrome browser manually. Internet users are to pay close attention to the promptings from their browser extensions, such as the permission to run on any website visited and the data requested before installing it.
"Although, some extensions are seemingly legit, due to the high number of user downloads, these hazardous add-ons make it imperative for users to ascertain the authenticity of extensions they access.”
Cost of data, calls to increase as telecommunication companies write NCC for tariff change
Legit.ng reported that Nigerians are set to pay more for calls and data as telecommunication companies are proposing a new tariff increase by 40 per cent.
They made this known in a letter they sent to the Nigerian Communications Commission titled, ‘Impact of the Economic and Security Issues on the Telecommunications Sector.
The letter was written by the telecommunications companies under the aegis of the Association of Licensed Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria to the NCC.
Source: Legit.ng
