Google removes 200 ad-injecting Chrome extensions that had malware

Google has kicked off April with quite a bang, announcing that it has removed almost 200 ad-injecting Chrome extensions, which were exposing users to malware, and all sorts of other nasties.

More than a third of these Chrome extensions were injecting ads that were recently classified as malware, with researchers finding 192 deceptive Chrome extensions that had affected a huge 14 million people. Google officials have removed those extensions, and pushed in new techniques that will catch any new, or updated extensions that try to abuse users.

The study also found that there is widespread use of ad injectors for other browsers, not just Chrome, on both Windows and OS X. Over 5% of people visiting Google sites have at least one ad injector installed, and within that group, half of those half two injectors installed. Scarily, nearly one-third have at least four installed.