In a weird twist of #TbT, it appears the netizens (people who use the internet) are taken back to the old days of download bombs. And all major mainstream browsers are affected including Chrome, Firefox, and Opera. If you don’t know what download bomb is, consider yourself lucky, but sadly your luck might just have run out.
A download bomb is a sick trick by scammers and shady tech support sites that involves initiating hundreds or sometimes thousands of downloads all at once leading to a browser freezing on a specific web page. The purpose of this trick is to have the user call the Tech Support number displayed on the given specific web page.
Though Google said it had fixed the vulnerability on Chrome, MS Power User claims that with the rollout of the Chrome version 67, the loophole has been again opened. That is to say, not even the world’s most popular browser is safe from the download bomb. So what is safe then?
Believe it or not! It turns out, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer are the safest browsers when it comes to preventing the download bombs attacks. That is according to Bleeping Computer, who ran several tests on various browsers and found all of them froze; except for Edge and IE.
So how do I protect myself?
I understand that to most people, changing a browser is not easy. Sure, you can always migrate from one browser to the next with all your bookmarks, history, and passwords. There is still the trust issue; maybe you trust one browser to be more secure than the other alternatives.
However, as far as download bomb is concerned, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer have been given a clean bill of health by experts at Bleeping Computer. But if you are not going for that option and choose to stick with your Chrome, or Firefox (etc.), whatever you do when that freezing page appears on your browser, do not under any circumstances call the number or follow the instructions given therein.