For a very long time, many users, especially business firms, have been using these extensions to their benefit. A popular extension that goes by the name "The Great Suspender" was recently removed from all the Chrome browsers.
What was the reason behind removing the Malware?
The reason behind this removal was that this extension contained malware, as per the reports. The expulsion, however, was appreciated by many users since they lost a lot of their on-hold tabs.
To be more specific, this extension's function was to limit the memory usage by pausing the old tabs processes until reaccessed. This would remove their content from memory, freeing up enough space to store new tabs. While simultaneously displaying a blank grey screen on the at-hold browser until it was revisited.
The Great Suspender
The Great Suspender was a lightweight extension that would help you make your browser's performance better and smoother. Google's decision to remove the Great Suspender extension was an uncalled action that left millions of users hanging when it was suddenly deactivated from their browser.
Even though the extension had been performing abnormally ever since November, no one suspected that it would be brought down. However, the abnormalities resulted in Microsoft blocking the extension from its very own browser.
Sudden Suspension of the Extension
Google came forward later with a "The extension contains malware" alert notification to ease the tension and misunderstandings among its users.
As per some other reports, Calum McConnell talked with GitHub and informed that Dean Oemcke, the Great Suspender, sold the extension to an unknown source in June 2020.
According to many, this unknown source had deceitful intentions of misusing the user's browser and data. After the deal, two new versions of this extension were released for Chrome.
The latest versions took the market with thousands of downloads, just like the previous version. Unfortunately, it was then discovered that these versions had malware that tracked the users and assisted in advertising fraud, as mentioned earlier.
The users who have been grieving upon losing their previous tabs can still access the extension through GitHub via Chrome's developer mode. However, moving forward with this step will come with some difficulties related to storage capacity, security, etc.
The Extension Must Be Removed Immediately
The extension was praised and used by many, and ever since its removal, many businesses have been facing specific issues. Thus, some users have tried to download it again, but it has cost them effort, money, and corrupted data.
Therefore it is suggested that one must refrain from using it under any circumstances, and if it is still installed on any computer, it must be uninstalled and deleted immediately.
