Searchinvietnam.com

Posted by Max Lehmann on August 23, 2016

What is Searchinvietnam.com?

Searchinvietnam.com is a browser hijacker. Even if you let it in yourself, it is classified as a browser hijacker because it provides users with false information. When installing this search provider, you might be made believe that it is the best search tool on the market, when, in reality, it is not. In fact, it does not even work as a search provider. Instead of scanning the web for useful results, it redirects your search queries to a third-party search engine. Sure, Yahoo Search – which is the provider you will be exposed to – is not considered malicious, but the hijacker might use this engine to showcase sponsored links. According to Anti-Spyware-101.com researchers, it is likely that this hijacker will be spread bundled with an extension created by Imali Media. In that case, the hijacker could take over your browsers unexpectedly. In any case, we recommend removing Searchinvietnam.com right away, and this report includes all the information you need to eliminate this hijacker. test

How does Searchinvietnam.com work?

Once Searchinvietnam.com slithers in, it can take over your homepage and default search provider on your browser (it can hijack Firefox, Chrome, and IE browsers). The interface of this hijacker is identical to the interfaces of Cheetasearch.com, Search.funsocialtabsearch.com, Search.funcybertabsearch.com, and other browser hijackers associated with Imali Media. This company develops attractive extensions that introduce users to these hijackers; except for Cheetasearch.com which is not linked to any extension yet. Just like this hijacker, Searchinvietnam.com should be linked to an extension in the future, and we assume this because of the tag at the bottom of the home page. This tag should include the name of the add-on, but the space is empty. Other than that, the hijacker provides easy-access links to social networking, entertainment-related, and media/TV-related sites. It also includes a quick-access link to liveforgames.com, which is an online gaming website. As you might have noticed, the links represented by the hijacker are legitimate, and they are not the reason we suggest removing the hijacker.

As mentioned previously, Searchinvietnam.com can show sponsored search results. Just like with the links on the home page, these links must be a part of the advertising service that Imali Media earns money from. Third-party advertisers could use this hijacker to represent their own links, and interacting with them is always risky. Why? Because third-parties are unknown, and their intentions are a mystery. Do you think reliable parties would get involved with the suspicious Imali Media? Of course, that is possible, but our researchers warn that unreliable parties could also exploit this service to introduce unsuspecting users to scams, misleading offers, and links routing to corrupted websites. We do not claim that every user will face the same dangers while using the hijacker, but we warn that the possibility of facing misleading links exists. You also need to consider the risk of having information about you collected and shared with unknown parties. Did you not know that Searchinvietnam.com can spy on you? Overall, you should take all of that into consideration when deciding whether or not to delete the hijacker.

How to erase Searchinvietnam.com

Anti-Spyware-101.com research team strongly recommends deleting Searchinvietnam.com from your web browsers. This hijacker does not offer beneficial, trustworthy services, and, besides that, it can spy on you, redirect you, and showcase sponsored links that might be completely unrelated to your search queries. Our recommendation for you is to invest in reliable anti-malware software right away. If other malicious programs exist, they will be automatically eliminated along with the hijacker. Furthermore, you will no longer need to worry about your virtual security, as it will be taken care of. Are you leaning towards manual removal? If you are, we strongly recommend scanning your operating system first to identify existing malware. If you only find the hijacker, you can use the easy-to-follow guide below to get rid of it. Of course, if this is your option, you have to think about the protection of your operating system, and we hope that you will consider installing reliable security software.

Removal Instructions

Google Chrome:

Launch Explorer (tap Win+E) and enter %LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\ into the address bar.
Open the Default folder. Note that if you have multiple Profiles, you need to open your Profile folder.
Delete the files named Preferences, Secure Preferences, and Web Data. If you want to modify them, you can open them with Notepad and replace the hijacker’s URL with the desired one.

Internet Explorer:

Launch RUN (tap Win+R) and enter regedit.exe to launch a menu.
Move to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main.
Right-click and Modify the value named Start Page.
Replace the URL of the hijacker with the URL of the desired start page.
Right-click and Modify the value named Search Page.
Replace the URL of the hijacker with the URL of the desired search provider.

Mozilla Firefox:

Launch Explorer (tap Win+E) and enter %AppData%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ into the address bar.
Open the folder representing your Firefox Profile (look for the .default string in the name).
Open the file named prefs.js using Notepad (right-click the file and choose the tool to open it with).
Replace the URL of the hijacker with the desired URL.