A browser is a program on your computer, laptop or mobile device which is used to surf the internet.

A lot of people think programs like Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Edge or Mozilla Firefox are the internet. These programs are not the internet, but just applications which help you use part of the internet such as accessing websites.

As a web site is broadcast-ed over the internet to you in a computer language such as HTML or PHP your web browser will accept it and turn it into something you can see and use like Facebook, Google search engine or this web site for instance you are reading this on now.

What is Browser Hijacker Virus

This particular type of viruses is a little bit different than the ones which spy on you or damage your computer.

Although they are indeed malicious in nature, they operate completely different.

Browser Hijackers infect your web browser and usually leave the rest of your system alone, unless your computer was infected by something else and the hijacker was installed as an extra or addon.

There are many ways you can get a web browser hijacking viruses but for the most part they are usually accidentally downloaded by the user and operator of the computer unknowingly.

An example can be from downloading media files from an insecure source, or it can come pre-packaged with a legitimate file.

What is the Purpose of a Browse Hijacker

The purpose of and why people create hijacking viruses is to bring you to websites you would of otherwise not gone to.

Maybe the website is too small and insignificant you would have never come across it, or maybe it’s a site search engines such as Google have banned.

Other way, whether it is for marketing purposes or political, someone wants traffic to their website and has used malicious software to get you there!

How do I Know if I have a Browser Hijacker

There are two very easy ways to determine if you have a web browsing hijacking virus.

The first is, you will go to a website and be redirected somewhere else. For example, you might type in a news website you have gone to before, but today it might take you somewhere else, to a site you have never seen before which is probably trying to sell you something

The second is, it probably just doesn’t look right.

You have used your computer 1000 times and sometimes you can just tell something is off. People usually tell us Google is their first website that comes up when they open their web browser and then one day it was no longer, or just looked completely different.

What Can You Do?

There are plenty of tools out there which claim to help with browser hijackers.

A lot of the time, these tools are also malicious in nature and used that as a rouse to get on to your computer.

If you already have antivirus on your computer to protect you and you still got the virus, it probably means the virus has compromised your antivirus and operating system, which means you will not be able to use your antivirus to remove the malicious virus.

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