As you may know, surfing the Net, strange things may happen such as Malware
and other insidious piece of codes, and tracking cookies penetrating your system
through unguarded ports of your browser. And suddenly, you would be noticing
that your Homepage had changed, and the browser slowing down or behaving strangely.
Yes, when one visits some webpages, these quietly inject malicious code into
your system, to divert your chosen homepage towards another one, and even
towards a fake one of the original one. Worse, the injected pieces of codes
would be lying down silently until you connect to your banking account or
enter purchasing process to pay online. Then your credit card credentials and
your banks account login criteria will be stealthily grabbed.
I used to configure my homepage to msn.com. One day, I notice, visiting an
European country, that the msn.com page that showed, was the one of the visited
country. Strange. I checked the Internet Options and found out that the configured
homepage is still msn.com. So, how comes that the shown page is be.msn.com?
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Browser Hijacker.Deskbar and Adware HBHelper
I knew that
the hijacking of homepage can happen if one has not taken the
precaution to install several buffers antispyware, such as SuperAntispyware,
Microsoft Security Essentials. The former one, has a configuration that normally
impede hijacking of browser. In spite of having these installed and regularly
updated, I am now face with the fact that my original homepage had been
changed to another one.
So I made Bing and Google research to find out what is wrong. That's when I
discovered about Browser Hijacker. Deskbar and its companion
Adware HBHelper. Ever heard about these? No? Then you should
take action not to become victim of the nasty consequences triggered by their
eventual presence in your system.
Indeed, here is the description given by SuperAntispyware:
-
Browser Hijacker.Deskbar
installation component
- Browser hijackers interfere
with a user's web browser
configuration and can interfere
with the proper operation
of the browser itself.
- Browser hijackers include
browser extensions, toolbars,
and helper applications that
can make a hijacker difficult
to disable or remove.
- This application may be
responsible for home page
hijacking, pop-up and in-browser
advertising, unwanted toolbars,
and general browser and system
instability.
-
Prevention or Cure?
The
malware bypassed SuperAntispyware
protection, installed and change
the home page. So, I run SuperAntispyware's
scan that found the culprit as
per below outlined indications
and quarantine it:
However,
when I fired up Internet Explorer,
the homepage changed again
to be.msn.com. Obviously, Browser
Hijacker. Deskbar and
its companion Adware
HBHelper were still
in action. That means, that
the malware was injected again
into the system.
Which raises the question of
"Prevention or Cure". Superantispyware
does its cure job, but does
not prevent the malware to
be injected again.
To prevent the malware to be
injected again, one needs an
application that can block
the injection and protect the
browser from being hijacked.
One needs Prevention and Cure
as cure only is not enough
to protect the system.
-
SpywareBlaster and or Malwarebytes'
Antimalware
There
is an application that does the
prevention job perfectly, impeding
malware and other malicious cookies
to infect the computer: SpywareBlaster.
This application is a must have
for anyone who care for the security
of surfing at peace. There is a
free version and a paid one. Its
better to go
straight to the homepage of the
programmer who produces this
marvellous piece of application
- and avoid wandering around the
Net visiting hundred of sites that
featured it - and sometime asked
for a payment for the free version.
Please take note that the
free version does not provide full
protection. The paid version
for one computer is around nine
bucks for one year licence. That
would be one of the best investment
you may have to make for peace
of mind.
The alternative or a good companion
to SywareBlaster is Malwarebytes'
Anti-Malwareavailable
for download here. It
is advised to allow for the Protection
Module available in the Protection
menu.
-
CWShredder
As
stated above, several Antispyware
failed to either spot Browser
Hijacker. Deskbar and
its companion Adware HBHelper,
or to cure the system permanently
from damage made by the culprits.
Indeed, a scan made with these
AntiSpyware may assist to quarantine
the culprits, but that does not
impede the re-injection into the
system again and again.
There is one application, CWShredder,
that does the cure. Download
it from here, run it to remove
the culprits and the likes, before
installing SpywareBlaster.
The ideal would be to have as many
as possible AntiSpyware and AntiMalware
installed. The main Africabiz's
computer, dedicated to communication
and trading has six AntiSpyware
and AntiMalware co-existing without
any disturbing interference.
They are: the three already above
listed, plus (1) Iobit
Malware fighter,
(2)
Advanced System Care - both
from iobit.com. Advanced System
Care has a strong protection module
against tracking cookies and suspicious
websites, together with a powerful
scanning engine that assisted to
uproot the remaining traces of Browser
Hijacker. Deskbar and
its companion Adware
HBHelper; and also installed
is (3) Microsoft
Security Essentials.
A warning thought: There are fake
and rogue Anti-virus and AntiSpyware
clients running wild over the Net.
Beware. Click
here for more about the matter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dr.
Bienvenu-Magloire Quenum is a Business
Planner/ the principal of Dr.
Quenum & Associates, IBC.
He accumulated a vast computing
experience dating back to
the late mid 1980s, and is
sharing it with visitors
to this site since 1997.
You may request assistance
for day-to-day computing
tips login
to the support board available
at this link. And thanks
you for visiting the Control
your Desktop section of Africabiz
Online.
- AN EFFICIENT AND FREE ALTERNATIVE TO MICROSOFT OFFICE
Microsoft flagship software, Office Productivity Suite is a must have. Can you
live without Word, Exell, PowerPoint and Outlook mail clients? Certainly not.
However, it is not free. Further, an update can disrupt the suite and all the
components may start behaving weirdly. Outlook will not load and claim for install,
again and again. In short, Office Productivity Suite is
a must have, but sometimes it can become a pain in the ass.
The competition is running after Office since a decade without gaining substantial
ground. Some propose web based suite to try to beat Microsoft - which retaliated
proposing the same. Other desktop productivity suites are simply not fully compatible
with Microsoft Office's set standards. For instance, one can use such suites
to save a document into Microsoft office formats, to found out that your correspondent
- the destinator of the document, cannot open it.
All this is for the past. Here comes LibreOffice, a serious competitor
to Microsoft Office Suite (which however lacks a mail client). It is
slim, powerful and most of all completely compatible with Microsoft Office standards.
You can save in doc, docx and make pdf files. Etc.
- Installation can be a bit difficult
There is a hiccup though. Sometimes the install of LibreOffice may fail, depending
on the initial configuration of the machine.
Indeed, even if you are the Administrator
of your machine, you do not, contrary to the mainstream belief, have a complete
access to all folders and files on your computer. For instance, you do not have
full control to automatically grant permissions on the REGISTRY folders and files.
Thus, during the install of some software, the installation process may hung
up, because the installer cannot write some Registry Key.
This may happen during LibreOffice install. And you would be ending up with ERROR
1402 or something of the kind, stating that you do not have the Administrator's
rights to authorize the installer to input the software KEY into a certain registry's
file. You may read the following when the install hung up;
Could not Open Hkey_Local Machine\Software\Classes\.dif\OpenWithProIDs
This simply means your Administrator's rights do not cover "tempering" with
.dif and with OpenWithProIDs
- You have to give yourself the rights to do so
Search the Internet with the string \Software\Classes\.dif and
you will dig out plenty of forum results advising on how to solve the matter,
that is dinking with the registry.
A piece of advise, before starting dinking with the registry,
make a backup copy of the entire registry to reverse to the original configuration
if things do not work out well.
Rest assured, that it is worthwhile to install LibreOffice. No more
troubles as when Microsoft Office updates fail. Further, LibreOffice is an extraordinary
alternative to Microsoft Office Suite. That cost you nothing. Good luck.
Bookmark
this page (link valid for Internet Explorer - for
other web browsers, please Click Bookmark on
the browser menu) and come back often to visit. Stay tune to
Products Sourcing From China.
.
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