Security Threats from the Chrome Web Store with Sheryl Hsu

Have you ever wondered how secure your browser extensions really are? On our latest Secure Talk episode join us for a discussion with Sheryl Hsu, a researcher from Stanford Empirical Security Research Group. We discuss their recent paper “What is in the Chrome Web Store? Investigating Security-Noteworthy Browser Extensions.” Sheryl and the team at the Stanford Empirical Security Research Group show that Security-Noteworthy Extensions (SNE) are a significant issue as they have a pervasive presence in the Chrome Web Store for years and affect almost 350 million users. In this great discussion we talk about the threat capabilities of nefarious code executed by plugins in the Chrome Browser. We also talk about the perverse incentives at Alphabet in managing the Chrome Web Store. They need to make plugins that have powerful capabilities, easy to deliver and sticky. But this creates the opportunity for powerful cybercrime tools, easily installed that are rarely inspected. Fundamentally we ask 'who is responsible for security in the “app” economy'? Research: https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.12710