5 tips to stay safe from browser hijack viruses

The technical exclusions that malware removing software uses can be the downfall of many computers users and cause them problems in the future. The idea of exclusions is to prevent the software from real time scanning certain programs, files or folders which you might deem to be safe and to thus, increase system performance. The problem occurs when a malicious program reads this system data and uses it to infect the system further. This means viruses reside in the exclusion folder and don’t get scanned!

This has happened often with browser hijackers and in particular the Google redirect virus. Since this virus has been around for many years, hackers have had to try and find new ways to infect machines and remain hidden so they can carry out their ‘dirty work’. Often, a Google redirect virus might then turn into a botnet infection and your system might become part of a criminals ‘zombie’ computer network that can then carry out all kinds of system spam, and malicious web activities. This video below by Watchguard explains all:

Why you should protect against Browser hijackers

Simply, the best way to protect against these is to stay safe online and think about what you’re doing. That means, don’t visit any sites that could be malicious or contain controversial material. If you don’t you could end up with a browser redirect virus and then you’ll be searching for a good removal guide of the Google redirect, there are plenty out there, but not getting infected in the first place should be your initial goal! Well, this is obviously what should be happening first and the system state is not something you should be looking to restore on Windows XP or 7 (perhaps Vista though).

Protection tips against browser hijackers

There are plenty of ways to ensure you don’t receive a browser hijacker infection so follow these 5 simple but effective tips:

1. Use an antivirus program and keep it updated! This means choice wisely since the market is full of poor quality products. Choose a trusted vendor and then ensure auto updates are always on. Check them from time to time to make sure there are no errors stopping you from getting the latest definitions.
2. Use Windows update – Microsoft will often release critical patches that can help patch holes within the system security. Typically, this is within the base system folders and sometimes the processes that Windows executable run under.
3. Be vigilant with your web browsing – If you’re receiving links in spam email, don’t click them! Even if you’re tempted, this is just a bad idea and is often where browser hijacking infections come from.
4. Have a good firewall – a firewall will monitor all tcp and udp connections and ensure that worms cannot infect the system. This is a common attack type when on a public lan (think cyber cafes and free wifi spots). Windows firewall has very limited protection capabilities!
5. Run a full system scan – This means using your antivirus programs but also other tools such as hitman pro or perhaps a free anti-spyware solution. Sometimes program miss infections that others pick up on. Check out this anti-spyware comparison site here.

Antivirus programming and how it is essential

Dynamic binary controls functions are what are comprised of technical aspects used within a base system accepting ratio. This means a Windows 7 box is actually less technically advanced than most Linux distributions. It is interesting to see where the antivirus markets itself since most people don’t have a clue about security and in particular, keeping safe online and ensuring that your machine does not get a malware or virus infection. This video below shows some interesting points about the antivirus market as a whole and why deep freeze is so effective.

So, if your base root system is comprised of some kernel drivers where does the antivirus filter fit in? Well, it has to read the latest file activity so this is done by inspecting all inputs and outputs within the file read and writes drivers. Naturally, this requires a bit of technical coding which is usually low level since it has to interact with system drivers.

I have seen a lot of poor quality coding when it comes to antivirus software, manually because it eats lots of system resources and does very little else but sit there within the tray and inspect critical data. Most exclusion are used to prevent browser hijackers from infecting a system and causing major havoc on a web browser. Well, this is technically the best aspect of what goes into the engine of a program such as malware bytes. Some vendors actually stopped releasing new program updates simply because their software was so ineffective at removing infections on a computer.

Remember that virus creators write their nasty viruses because they want to infect a system whilst at the same time making a profit. These are usually underground organisations that will be preventing you from using your computer for its more important purpose. These infections can occur from many different places including web exploits or infected files that you might be downloading quite often.