Google Chrome to alert on malware downloads

Google says that the latest beta version of its popular Chrome browser incorporates a new security feature to warn users that they are trying to download malicious software from a website.

That’s not a revolutionary new feature, of course, and various other browsers already protect consumers in this way. Not to mention “conventional” anti-virus solutions which also offer this kind of protection.

Google made the announcement on their Chrome blog, explaining that earlier versions of their browser only warned of drive-by malware attacks.

The latest Chrome beta version, however, “now includes expanded functionality to analyze executable files (such as ‘.exe’ and ‘.msi’ files) that you download. If a file you download is known to be bad, or is hosted on a website that hosts a relatively high…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.