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Browser Hijacking

Sunday, June 17th, 2007

What is Browser Hijacking?

Browser Hijacking software, or hijackware is a form of malware that modifies Internet browser settings without permission in order to redirect users to websites that they would not normally visit. Hijackware can change users home page and search page, as well as add sites to their favorites folder. The intention of the hijackers is to artificially inflate traffic to their own sites in order to increase their advertising revenues. These sites are normally full of advertisements, pornography, or illegal download links. If a user clicks on any part of the site, or even tries to navigate to another address completely, they will usually be bombarded with more pop-ups and other nuisances.

In many cases, hijackware will modify the browser settings within the registry so that victims are unable to change their Internet options manually. Sometimes, if one is able to fix their settings, upon restarting they will find the hijacker has reverted them once again. In addition, hijackers will also prevent access to certain sites, especially anti-virus sites, as well as redirect your browser to dubious sites even when you enter a correct address. Much like other forms of malware, the purpose of browser hijackers is to manipulate and profit from victims attempting to innocently browse the web.

Protection from Browser Hijacks

For protection from browser hijacking software, it is recommended to have proactive real-time spyware protection. Since browser hijacks can be a pain to repair, it is essential to have preventative protection that will block a browser hijack from downloading.

Proactive real-time spyware protection runs in the background continuously monitoring for spyware, browser hijacking and other malicious programs. When spyware or any other type of malware tries to download itself, real-time protection will detect and block the malicious program from installing. Top proactive real-time anti-spyware protection software includes: McAfee, Norton, and Webroot.