10/23/2025

This ‘Privacy Browser’ Has Dangerous Hidden Features

Experts say the Universe Browser behaves like malware and has ties to illegal crime

The Universe Browser makes some big promises to its potential users. Its online advertisements claim it is the "fastest browser," that people using it will "avoid privacy leaks" and that the software will help "keep you away from danger." However, everything likely isn't as it seems.

The browser, which is linked to Chinese online gambling websites and is thought to have been downloaded millions of times, actually routes all internet traffic through servers in China and "covertly installs several programs that run silently in the background," according to new findings from network security company Infoblox. The researchers say the "hidden" elements include features similar to malware, including "key logging, surreptitious connections" and changing a device's network connections.

Perhaps, most significantly, the Infoblox researchers who collaborated with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on the work, found links between the browser’s operation and Southeast Asia’s sprawling, multibillion-dollar cybercrime ecosystem, which has connections to money-laundering, illegal online gambling, human trafficking and scam operations using forced labor. The browser itself, the researchers says, is directly linked to a network around major online gambling company BBIN, which the researchers have labeled a threat group they call "Vault Viper."

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.