Search.searchliveson.com

Posted by Lisa Blanc on February 28, 2017

What is Search.searchliveson.com?

Polarity Technologies has recently released a new browser hijacker called Search.searchliveson.com. It is distributed in a malicious manner and can replace your browser’s homepage without your consent and, therefore, you should remove it. Apart from that, it will show custom search results that feature promoted links of unverified legitimacy and also gather some anonymous information about you to help personalize them. Our malware analysts have concluded that this search engine can pose a threat to your computer’s security, so you should get rid of it as soon as possible. test

What does Search.searchliveson.com do?

According to our malware analysts, Search.searchliveson.com functions like any regular search engine. Its main page features links to Nfl.com and Espn.com and several of its subpages. It features a search bar in its web-based toolbar and another search bar in the middle of the page. Entering a search query into any one of the search bars will redirect you to custom Yahoo search engine. Hence, this hijacker depends on Yahoo’s search algorithm. However, it is important to understand is that the search results can feature promotional links and not all of them are safe to click. Due to the fact that Polarity Technologies can do business with shady entities, there is no guarantee that all of the links are safe.

We want to point out that this particular search engine can collect some anonymous information about you. According to Search.searchliveson.com’s privacy policy, it can obtain information such as your search queries, browser type, IP address, Internet Service Provider, geographical location, operating system type, and browser type. Apparently, this information allows this hijacker to present you with better search results. However, we want to note that it might also customize the promotional links that you see in the search results as well. Researchers say that the links can be deceptive and redirect you to malicious websites.

Where does Search.searchliveson.com come from?

As mentioned, Search.searchliveson.com was created by Polarity Technologies which is a known malware developer that is known for making malicious search engines, browser hijackers and their browser extensions. This company has been very active recently as it has created browser hijackers such as Search.searchwfaa.com, Search.searchcounn.com, Search.couponsimplified.com, and many others. All of these hijackers are distributed in a malicious manner. Some of them have accompanying browser extensions while others do not.

According to our researchers, Search.searchliveson.com is distributed without the help of a browser extension. They say that its developer has had third-party software distributing websites include this hijacker into their software bundles. The installers of those bundles are said to hide the presence of malicious software and install it automatically. Hence, you might not have the opportunity to deselect the installation of Search.searchliveson.com when you run certain software installers. You can encounter such installers if you visit illegitimate, shady free software hosting websites.

How to remove Search.searchliveson.com

Search.searchliveson.com is no different from hundreds of other browser hijackers that were configured to replace your browser’s homepage without your knowledge or consent. Its search results can feature links to questionable websites, and it can also collect information about you to personalize the advertising campaign. Indeed, this hijacker is all about advertising and making money, so using it as a regular search engine is not something we recommend. If you want to remove it, please consult the instructions below.