The Great Suspender Google Chrome extension now contains malicious code, uninstall ASAP
The Great Suspender, a memory management extension for Google Chrome designed to help users that keep several tabs open at once, should be uninstalled as soon as possible following the discovery that it's contained malicious code since November of 2020.
The extension has been removed from Google's Chrome Web Store due to the discovery of this malware, and this removal has also caused the extension to be automatically removed from most instances of the
Google Chrome web browser. Because of this sudden removal, many users who have kept open tabs suspended using the extension will find that they've all been closed, which can be a major inconvenience.
The Great Suspender was sold from its original developer to an undisclosed buyer back in June of 2020, and a tracker was shortly thereafter inserted and removed from the extension's 7.1.8 and 7.1.9 release respectively. Reports of malicious code being added into The Great Suspender started in November of 2020, and have since ramped up to the point of Google now deciding to remove it entirely from the Chrome Web Store.
Viable alternatives to The Great Suspender include Auto Tab Discard, which is highly recommended by several AlternativeTo users, as well as
Workona. In addition to Google Chrome compatibility, both extensions are also compatible with
Mozilla Firefox, with Auto Tab Discard also being compatible with
Opera.
Further coverage:
XDA-Developers