It is more important than usual to update to the latest version of Chrome. Version 88.0.4324.150 of the Google browser released on Thursday fixes a vulnerability that the search giant says is being actively exploited. The update is being released now on Windows, Mac and Linux.
Google is not providing specific details about the CVE-2021-21148 vulnerability “until the majority of users are updated with a fix”. But ZDNet notes that the date Google says the bug was reported (January 24) is just a day before the Google Threat Analysis Group publicly released a hacking campaign that appeared to be partly counting on a vulnerability not corrected in Chrome. He said that government-backed hackers based in North Korea created a blog to attract their targets, which would infect their machines even if they were running fully patched software.
Regardless of the exact bug being fixed, it is more important than usual to ensure that you are running the latest version of Chrome. Although the browser update process is basically automatic, you can speed things up and force an update in the “About Google Chrome” menu.