New malware discovered spreading through Chrome. His name is Submelius and was discovered by ESET, a well-known company specializing in cybersecurity. The malicious code, once it manages to deceive the victims, installs as a Chrome extension and directs users to malicious content.
Submelius, according to ESET experts, it mostly affects illegal streaming platforms. The virus follows a precise strategy that includes several steps. It first appears in the form of an advertisement, one that says "make money working from home" or "a virus has been detected". Subsequently, if the victim falls into the hacker trap and clicks on the banner, he is directed to a web page that prompts the user to open another website. As a last step, the malware asks the victim to press "Accept". And this is where Submelius enters its most important phase: the malware, in fact, ends up installing a malicious extension on Chrome.
How Malware Affects
Once the malicious extension has been installed, the security of Chrome, and also of the machine used by the victim, is irremediably compromised. Malware, in fact, can freely modify the web pages visited by the user hit it, direct its web traffic to dangerous sites that contain advertisements and, even worse, other malware. In addition, when browsing, Submelius will show victims information about their system.
The malware, which chose Chrome to target, ran its malicious campaign between April and May by striking first the countries of Latin America and then also Europe, especially in Spain and managing to infect 45% of users.
How to protect yourself
First of all, avoiding clicking on misleading advertisements. It is always good check installed extensions. To do this, simply go to the browser settings and from the entry "Other Tools"press on "Extensions". At this point, all you have to do is delete all the extensions that seem dangerous to you.
Chrome, beware of extensions: they can contain malware
