Search.searchpcst.com

Posted by Max Lehmann on December 21, 2016

What is Search.searchpcst.com?

Search.searchpcst.com is a questionable search engine that may show up in your most popular browsers as your home page. This search page can emerge after a browser hijacker manages to infiltrate your computer. This may be a new browser hijacker but definitely not an unknown one for our malware researchers at anti-spyware-101.com. In fact, this malware infection is a newcomer from a family of browser hijackers that has "given birth" to dozens of similar and identical infections, including Search.searchwti.com, Search.searchtaccess.com, and Search.yourmapscenter.com. Although, this search page may look totally innocent at first sight, you should be aware of the potential risks you are taking by not removing Search.searchpcst.com from your browsers. Some users do not even realize this change in their browser settings as they are used to having search engine pages as their home pages. Unfortunately, this browser hijacker may collect information about your online activities and use this to manipulate the search results it displays to you. Since this infection may put your system security at risk by exposing you to potentially harmful third-party ads and links, we suggest that you remove Search.searchpcst.com from your browsers as soon as possible. test

Where does Search.searchpcst.com come from?

It is easier to get infected with a browser hijacker like this one than you may think. All it takes really is a click on a corrupt third-party ad, such as a banner and a pop-up ad, or a link on a modified search results page generated by a browser hijacker. You can be introduced to unreliable advertising when your system is infected with adware programs or you visit questionable websites that host such ads. This is why it is so important for you to make sure that not a single malware threat remains on board because it can cause further infections very easily, not to mention the fact that an adware program can also spy on you and hijack reliable third-party ads to send you to malicious pages. But, if you are lucky not to have such infections on board, you can still end up on suspicious unfamiliar websites, for example, after a web search.

You may want to find a free program to download and search for it using a reputable search engine. You can still be presented with a results page that contains unreliable and downright malicious file-sharing websites. If you are not an experienced user, you may not be able to make the difference between reputable sites and malicious ones. Unfortunately, these questionable pages are filled with misleading and unreliable third-party contents. It only takes one single click on the wrong content and you could download a malicious freeware bundle containing this browser hijacker and other malicious programs as well. When you find a hijacker like this in your browsers, you should not ignore the possibility that there could be other threats as well. Therefore, we advise you to delete Search.searchpcst.com and scan your computer with a malware scanner to find all other potentially unreliable programs, too.

How does Search.searchpcst.com work?

This browser hijacker provides you with a fake toolbar at the top of this search page that contains a search tool and a few quick links to a local weather page and Internet speed related pages, such as broadbandchoices.co.uk/guides/speed/boost-your-internet-speed. You can also find a link right below the main search box: "Show Speed Test." Clicking on this link will open a panel below with a download and upload Internet speed test that seems to work just fine. We need to mention that the local weather-related page is actually a page that contains a widget and several potentially unreliable third-party ads as well. It would be unfortunate to click on these because you could be redirected to malicious websites that could have a sad end. But the issues do not stop here. This browser hijacker may collect information about your browsing habits and use it to promote customized third-party ads and sponsored links. The only problem is that cyber criminals may also pose as third parties and embed their own infectious corrupt ads and links. If you click on such contents, you could directly drop further infections onto your system or open new tabs or new windows and be redirected to malicious webpages where you could be scammed into revealing your banking details and so on. We believe that leaving this browser hijacker in your browsers would be a big mistake. This is why we recommend that you remove Search.searchpcst.com as soon as possible.

How do I delete Search.searchpcst.com?

Since this browser hijacker seems to only affect the home page settings in your browser, it could be enough to restore these settings to eliminate this threat. However, we think that it may be safer to reset your browsers since there could be other malicious tools installed too. Please follow our guide below. Keep in mind that this way your browsers will be set to factory default, which means that you may lose your preferences, extensions, and certain settings. Also, remember that there may be other threats on your system that need to be tackled ASAP. It is possible that manual removal is not your cup of tea; therefore, we advise you to employ a decent anti-malware program, such as SpyHunter to automatically erase all malicious programs and protect your PC from future malware attacks.