We ought to know a lot of malware target Internet Explorer in the past. Obviously in last few years why we have seen a huge number of users are switching to use alternative browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, Safari, and Opera. Which used to be a safe computing practice before by many industry experts, but it seems it no longer is; Reason a huge number of malware targeting the most popular alternative Firefox.

There is a sneaky new spyware initially pretends to be an Adobe Flash Player update and, when executed on a user’s computer, creates a Firefox add-on called ‘Adobe Flash Player 0.2’. You might think no harm done with that but hey you are just half way through to a grave mistake that you will regret seriously.

So what it does? The add-on replaces traditional ads on Google search pages with its own ads (Very business minded malware right?), and wait that’s not all, the spyware has the ability to track what pages you browse and what you search. So the bottom line is you lose all privacy. So all those switching browser to get away from privacy killing malware; just gone up in smoke. According to Trend Micro malware appears to be spreading via forum posts.

The attack of Mozilla product shows that it can no longer be considered as a safe alternative to Microsoft IE which has been experiencing numerous exploits of its un-patched vulnerabilities. So what will be the counter action from the good folks at Mozilla?

This proves the mighty Firefox isn’t invincible, hack I would say no browser can be 100% secure unless users become more responsible and a bit paranoid as well. Download add-ons or whatever only from authorize site (only from main Firefox add-on repository). Don’t update any add-ons unless you are notified by proper notification built onto browser. Just keep your itchy finger off the mouse button, will ya!

Reference source: Trend Micro