Major cybersecurity warning for Australian Google users

Google has issued an urgent warning to some Aussie users after discovering eight weak spots that could be used to steal data and money.

Google has issued an urgent warning to users over weak spots that could be exploited by hackers. Picture: Kanzo Tribouillard / AFP

Google has issued an urgent warning to some users after developers discovered eight high-risk bugs on its platform that could be exploited by cyber criminals to steal money and data.

The tech heavyweight recently released an update revealing that users on older iterations of its web browser Chrome were at high risk of being hacked due to security weak spots.

The company will not publish details about the bugs, which were identified by several teams of experts, until enough users had updated the platform for fear of alerting scammers, Google’s warning said.

Google has issued an urgent warning to users after serious weaknesses were found in a new update. Picture: Kenzo Tribouillard/AFP

It is believed one of the bugs opens access to users’ list of saved passwords while another allows out-of-bounds memory access to human-interface devices like mice, touchscreens and keyboards. Both possibilities would pose a serious threat to data security.

“We would also like to thank all security researchers that worked with us during the development cycle to prevent security bugs from ever reaching the stable channel,” the company wrote.

Users will not have to worry about the bugs once they have updated Chrome to its latest version — 111.0.5563.110/.111 for Windows or 111.0.5563.110 for Mac.

To check if your browser needs to be updated, open Chrome, select “more” (the three dots in the right hand corner), head to settings and then “About Chrome”.

If your browser needs to be updated, it will ask you to relaunch. Otherwise, you’re in the clear.

The bugs have high risk of being exploited by hackers.

Chrome’s vulnerability comes amid a worrying surge in security breaches as hackers target Australian data.

The personal information of Australians was being stolen at a rate more than 20 times above the global average in December, according to research by data leak detection service Surfshark.

Financial firm Latitude was targeted earlier this month in yet another serious breach at an Australian company, with the data of approximately 333,000 people stolen.

This included Medicare numbers, copies of passports and passport numbers, Latitude confirmed.

It comes after yet another Aussie company was exposed by a major data breach. Picture: Latitude Financial

The company said of the stolen data that approximately 96 per cent was copies of driver’s licences or driver's licence numbers, about three per cent was copies of passports or passport numbers and about 1 per cent was Medicare numbers.

“Because the attack remains active, we have taken our platforms offline and are unable to service our customers and merchant partners,” Latitude said in a statement.

“In conjunction with our cybersecurity experts, we are continuing our forensic review of our IT platforms to identify the full extent of the theft of customer information as a result of the attack on Latitude.

“As our review deepens to include non-customer originating platforms and historical customer information, we are likely to uncover more stolen information affecting both current and past Latitude customers and applicants.”

Originally published as Major cybersecurity warning for Australian Google users