Microsoft removed five malicious Edge extensions from its web store because they displayed ads in its search results Google and Bing. Malicious extensions were considered legitimate applications, but served ads without the user's permission.
The five extensions (NordVPN, Adguard VPN, TunnelBear VPN, The Great Suspender and Floating Player) – found in the Edge add-on store exactly the same name which have the add-ons in Chrome webstore.
Most had not noticed that these were fake extensions and the majority had not given negative reviews. But some affected users left negative reviews in the Edge store and there were others who contacted the community on Reddit to ask for help.
The problem was first reported last week, but this week it started appearing in more and more users who noticed suspicious ads in search results. The reports were detected by a Microsoft Edge technician who removed the add-ons from the store.
"If you were using any of these extensions installed from the Microsoft Edge Addon Store, we recommend removing them from the edge: // extensions," the developer wrote.
As mentioned above, Microsoft has already removed the extensions from the store and the Edge browser will display a warning if the extensions are active on your system.
Of course Microsoft shouldn't let these kinds of extensions go through the approval process that uses in her Store. But the problem is common with the Chrome Store which is also full of fake extensions.
At installation any extensions from any store, you should carefully check the publisher name, extension privacy policy, reviews and make sure your browser is up to date. A very good practice is also the one I follow: I avoid unnecessary extensions.
"A very good practice is also the one I follow: I avoid unnecessary extensions."
The best practice, apart from an ad blocker if it serves us, let us take the trouble to activate it only when we need it.