How to Prevent and Deal with Browser Hijacking?

What is a browser hijacker? It is a dangerous web malware which modifies the settings of your browser, without your authorization. The least dangerous browser hijacker makes your browser use other kind of search engines or show advertisements that act as monetary gain for the browser hijacking author. And, the most risky is when your browser is made to download maleficent software like ransomware, which can convert all your data into a code (encryption) until the authors are paid a huge sum of money.

Other ways you may experience browser hijacking are:

  • Landing or redirecting of your search engine to unwanted websites
  • Changing of search engine or homepage without your consent
  • Slow loading of websites or web pages
  • Appearance of a number of non-useful add-ons on the web browser page that were not installed earlier
  • Addition of new toolbars
  • Getting multiple pop-ups and alerts for various kind of ads

Here are a few ways, you can prevent browser hijacking:

  • Keep your Operating System and browser updated with latest security software. Nowadays, browser makers also add anti-hijacking elements in the browser. So, it is best to keep your software up to date.
  • Use Google’s Safe Browsing program, which provides a list of all the browsers that display warning whenever you are about to visit a maleficent site. Browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome or Apple Safari are the ones that use Safe Browsing program.
  • Disable Javascript in your browser. Javascript has the potential to find out the important information such as your IP address, read typed things like passwords and download other scripts without your knowledge. So, remove Javascript by default in your browser. Use NoScript extension for Firefox and Script Block for Chrome to disable and enable it on per site basis.
  • Whenever, you open the internet, there are number of links that pop up in emails, messages or websites. If you doubt a link, think before opening it. Also, do not open emails received from unknown senders.
  • Whenever you install new software, do not click blindly. Read each installation step and all the terms and conditions so that installation of any unwanted software can be detected.
  • It is very important to install and use up to date Anti-virus software such as Microsoft security essentials or Clam AV.

How to remove browser hijacker?

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  • Open the Add-ons manager in your browser. Verify the authenticity of all the installed add-ons, plug-ins and extensions. Remove any doubtful add-on.
  • If you find out your homepage hijacked, you may simply retreat it through the settings of your browser.
  • In case you find yourself being redirected to other sites, there might be a chance that your host’s files have been affected. For this, you will need to reset the settings of your hosts file.
  • Clear your Domain Name System (DNS) cache in case of doubtful browser hijacking.
  • You can also use some browser hijacker removal tools like WinPatrol, AdwCleaner or Alert.

Search keywords: how to fix browser hijacking, remove browser redirects

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