Google Chrome will block downloads that may contain viruses

Network USA

Google Chrome multiplies the initiatives for a better security of the Net surfers. In a future update, the browser will deploy measures to block downloads that may contain viruses and other content at risk.

Google announces new features in Chrome that will reduce "downloads at risk." And to achieve this, the company intends to tackle content considered mixed. These are sites that load through an HTTPS page but include unsafe HTTP content. These sites are generally likely to pose risks to users and Google has never hidden that he did not like sites that neglect their security.

Google Chrome will soon block suspicious downloads

In a message sent to members of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), Google states its intention to prevent certain downloads in Chrome. The announced changes concern only a few high-risk file types that virus writers primarily use to spread their malware. These are the exe (Windows), dmg (macOS), crx (chrome extensions) files, but also zip, gzip, bzip, tar, rar or 7z archive files.

Google invites other browsers to support the initiative by tackling downloads that may pose security risks. The company says it does not want to block downloads from insecure pages that load over the HTTP protocol for the moment, as it already warns users with "Not Safe" next to the address bar.

For the moment, these measures are not yet deployed in Google Chrome, but this will be the case in one of the future updates. Mozilla is visibly ready to follow suit. A representative of the foundation told the ZDnet site that he is interested in this idea, which is in line with previous measures already taken on Firefox to protect users from insecure content.