Home Page Hijacker

A home page hijacker is a form of System Modification Spyware Software that is designed to change your internet browser home page to something other than the one you’ve chosen. These home page hijacking programs often make changes in your registry or HOSTS files. What this means is that the spyware program has disabled your ability to change your home page back to the original one, or that every time you open a new browser window you home page reverts back to the hijacked one. Cool Web Search is an example of a home page hijacking program.

What are the signs of home page hijackers?

One obvious sign of a homepage hijacker is that your home page is not the one you’ve designated in your Internet Options. Another symptom of home page hijacker infection is extremely slow internet speed. That’s because your website requests are being funneled through and monitored by some unknown third party.

Other signs of a home page hijacker infection include being directed to web sites other than the ones you type in your address bar; being directed to undesirable sites (such as porn) when you mis-type a URL; never ending pop-up ads; or unwanted web sites being added to your favorites list. Click here to find out if you’ve been the victim of a home page hijacker.

How do you get a home page hijacker infection?

As with most other forms of spyware, home page hijacking software is installed on your computer without your consent or knowledge. These programs exploit security flaws in Internet Explorer to infect your computer. Sometimes just visiting a certain web site can cause you to get this hijacking software installed on your PC.

What can I do to protect myself?

One of the most important things you can do to protect yourself from these home page hijacking programs is to make sure you are current with your Windows updates and security patches. Make sure you also update your Internet Explorer program. Use a good anti-spyware program like Webroot Spy Sweeper to clean home page hijackers from your PC and to get real time protection against future infection.

Home page hijacking software can make your internet experience difficult and downright annoying. If you’re ready to take back control of your computer, click here.