Adware tale of the computer hijackers
So, what is adware?
Adware is a type of malware that injects advertisements or other unwanted commercial materials onto your computer. These ads show up in your browser and can also be sent to you by text messages, emails and phone calls. Adware usually shows ads from the same company on multiple websites that you visit - this way they can make extra money off you! It's important to know what the signs are of adware so that if it ever infiltrates your computer, you'll know enough about it to stop it quickly before it gets any worse.
What is a hijacker?
A computer hijacker is a type of adware that changes your browser's search engine, homepage and/or default search settings without your permission. One of the most famous and frustrating hijackers is the Babylon Toolbar . Computer hijackers are very similar to adware. Both types of malware can track the online activities you perform, such as browsing habits, and then sell this information to advertisers for money. The main difference between a computer hijacker and adware is that hijackers will take over your browser without you even noticing it happened!
These two threats are extremely troublesome because they leave no traces when they enter your system. As stated by the organization that helps defend against adware, "A typical adware program does not register with the system registry and does not leave any traces on the compromised machine." With computer hijackers, this is not always true.
The correlation between adware and computer hijackers is very strong. The fact that adware can be used to track your activities on the Internet coupled with their ability to change browser settings without you actually using their software are the reasons why many researchers refer to them as a virus—they share many similar characteristics with viruses such as self-replication and a completely destructive nature.
Who has been affected?
As computer hijackers have become more advanced, they have entered into more homes of unsuspecting users. Here are some interesting stories about how computer hijackers were discovered: An English teacher in Connecticut noticed that her homepage was changed to Yahoo! when the browser she was using at the time was Internet Explorer.
The teacher went to check her computer settings and see if this change could be explained by an unfortunate configuration error. However, no such explanation was found. Instead, it was found that a small program had been installed onto her machine without her informing—this small program is believed to have caused the homepage change. Upon further investigation, it turned out that not only did this small program have access to a lot of information on the computer, but it also sent classified data back to its owners' servers.
Another example of a hijacker attacking users is the story of a law firm from Minnesota. This firm was being spammed with thousands of emails from various law firms in different states. They were very confused about why they were receiving these emails since the firm never advertised their services. An investigation was launched and it turned out that their machine had been infected with a hijacker .
The hijacker caused the PC to load a webpage that would send email for the owner without his knowledge, sending out whatever advertisements were on the page.
There's even a story of how the hijacker that attacked Mitt Romney's personal computer affected his campaign greatly. The campaign received many emails from a conservative Catholic group asking if Romney was anti-Catholic. The funny thing about this was that the sender field in these emails had Romney's personal email address in it!
The only way this could happen was if someone were sending these messages from Romney's computer. The conclusion drawn from all of this data is that adware, or more specifically computer hijackers, cost candidates and other people with political careers a lot of time and money.
How common is it?
Computer hijackers have been known to affect over 50% of all users, and they are more common than most people think.
How do they get into your computer?
There are many ways that these hijackers can get onto your machine without you knowing about it. The first and most common way these programs enter into the system is when you visit an infected website that contains malicious code. Sometimes these websites are created by hackers that want to make some extra money, but for the most part these websites were created by people who just want to show you something cool. Once malicious code has been installed on your machine, a number of hijackers will be able to get inside and begin to infect it.
Another way that these hijackers can come into your computer is through spam email. In the case of the law firm from Minnesota, it was emails from other law firms that loaded a website that was owned by a person who was trying to earn some extra money. These websites are very common on the Internet and make tons of money for large corporations.
How do you prevent computer hijackers?
Computer hijackers are becoming more advanced, but there are still ways to avoid them. It is very important to download an anti-spyware program onto your computer so you can search through all of your files. If you don't have one already, we suggest Spybot – Search & Destroy . Once installed, this anti-spyware program will prevent any nasty spyware from infiltrating your system.
Another way to prevent these adware programs from getting on your computer is by using an anti-virus program, such as the one we recommend, SpyHunter . There are many different types of hijackers out there and with all of them you must use an anti-spyware program in order to effectively remove them.
Many websites that may contain malicious code will be known as "cheap" websites because most hackers don't want to pay for their website hosting so instead they'll just write a script in a language called PHP (programming language). This script will usually redirect you away from the website you were actually trying to visit and to a website that has been paid for by the hacker. These kinds of websites are very easy to detect because they usually don't look professional, but it is also possible for adware hijackers and spyware programs to be installed into your computer when you visit a "cheap" website.
One of the newest ways that these programs are getting onto computers is through fake anti-virus software . This software will claim it is an anti-virus program and it will even go as far as fooling your computer into thinking that there are viruses on your system by displaying fake scan results in order to get you to buy the software.
Conclusion
Computer hijackers are not to be taken lightly because they can cause a lot of problems for your computer. If one gets onto your system, you probably won't know about it until it's too late. Many times, these special programs contain malware that will also infect your machine and steal personal information including passwords, credit card numbers and other important data.
There have been many different stories that have been documented through the years regarding computer hijackers, but they all say the same thing: they can be very dangerous!
How do you get rid of a computer hijacker?
We recommend SpyHunter . It is an anti-spyware program that can remove all kinds of hijackers from the operating system.