Privacy Perils: Beware Browser Autofill

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Bass, Berry & Sims PLC

The ingenuity of determined fraudsters should never be underestimated. Gizmodo, a technology website, reports on a simple scheme where hackers capture your sensitive information merely by hijacking the autofill features found in the Chrome and Safari browsers (as opposed to information saved in actual websites like the iTunes store, PayPal or Google Play). As you may have noticed, by default the Chrome browser will autofill certain text boxes when you access even legitimate websites that ask for information. The trick to the current scheme is that the bad guy can create a website to mimic a legitimate one, and then hide certain of the text boxes. Merely filling out the (fake) form on that site (accessed through the Chrome browser) with your name could auto-populate unseen text boxes with whatever sensitive information was previously stored by Chrome. A seven second video in 1/10/17 Gizmodo article demonstrates how easy this trick is accomplished.

What to do? As Gizmodo recommends, disable the autofill feature of a browser (or at least that of Chrome and Safari). Thirty seconds of inconvenience far outweighs months of headaches and heartaches.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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