New Chrome defenses against online scams

Jasika Bawa, a product manager for Chrome, described three new security features in a blog post on October 20 aimed at protecting users from online scams. These features are designed to detect and respond to suspicious websites more effectively, even before they are officially marked as malicious.

Enhanced Safe Browsing Protection required

The new defenses are only available with Enhanced Safe Browsing Protection, a mode introduced in 2020 but not enabled by default on all devices. This mode provides real-time protection but requires users to activate it manually.

Two-level alert system introduced

Previously, Chrome only displayed a full-screen red page for sites confirmed to be malicious. Now, it adds a "suspicious" category for sites with uncertain but potential risks. These sites show a darkened page with an alert titled "This site doesn't seem right" and options to return to a safe place or mark the site as trustworthy.

Potential for false positives

The new "suspicious" level may increase the chance of false positives, where legitimate sites are incorrectly flagged. However, Google has not provided data on detection accuracy or how site owners can contest a suspicious classification.

Gemini model improves detection

Google is moving from a local model, Gemini Nano, to a more powerful Gemini model hosted on its servers. This model detects fake antivirus software and browser updates by analyzing the brand imitated, the page's intent, and the probability of fraud.

Safe Browsing cross-checks results

The Gemini model's findings are cross-checked with the domain's reputation through Safe Browsing. This ensures that potential threats are verified before any action is taken.

ClickFix detection added

The third feature targets ClickFix, a scam tactic that tricks users into copying and pasting commands into their computer's terminal. Chrome now detects such commands, removes personal data from the clipboard, and sends the rest to Safe Browsing for analysis.

Enhanced Protection improves safety

Google claims that Enhanced Protection makes users ten times safer than the default Standard Protection against phishing and scams. However, the "suspicious" alerts are currently only available in the enhanced mode.

Privacy trade-off

Enhanced Protection involves sharing more browsing data with Google in exchange for real-time checks. Google assures that this data is not stored and remains within its ecosystem, but users must weigh this against the added security benefits.

How to activate Enhanced Protection

To use the new features, users must activate Enhanced Protection in Chrome. On computers, this involves navigating through Settings, Privacy and Security, and checking the Enhanced Protection option. On Android, the process is similar but accessed through the Safe Browsing settings.

Reminder from Google

Google included a note in its blog post reminding users that Chrome will never ask them to paste a command to "fix" an issue, reinforcing its stance against such scam tactics.