Search.searchutilities.co

Posted by Max Lehmann on June 1, 2017

What is Search.searchutilities.co?

You might get Search.searchutilities.co as a result of installing a shady software bundle. The bundles that contain this search engine inject it into your browser secretly and automatically. Therefore, our malware analysts have classified it as a browser hijacker and urge you to remove it as it can jeopardize your personal privacy and your computer’s security. To better understand where this hijacker comes from and how it works, you can read more in the description below. test

What does Search.searchutilities.co do?

As any malicious search engine that was classified as browser hijacker, Search.searchutilities.co was made with a specific objective in mind — to hijack the homepage of your browser. Indeed, this hijacker was designed to replace your browser’s homepage address with itself in an effort to make you use it as a regular search engine. Our malware analysts say that this hijacker is compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, and Mozilla Firefox, but not Microsoft Edge.

The reason this hijacker does that is to force you to use it for browsing the web. However, the deception here is that Search.searchutilities.co’s search results are bound to contain commercial advertisements and links that can be of unknown origin. Indeed, this hijacker can promote links provided by unreliable or outright malicious adware servers. As a result, its search results can feature deceptive links to various websites that can feature fake surveys, malware, and so on. In short, this hijacker can promote content that can be harmful to your PC, so using it is a potential security risk.

To top it all off, this hijacker was configured to keep tabs on you and obtain some anonymous information about you. According to Search.searchutilities.co’s privacy policy, “we may collect personally-identifiable information through the use of our Services upon your contacting us so that we may respond to your questions or comments, such as your name, email or mailing address, or other information you include when contacting us.” So, it seems that, under certain circumstances, this hijacker can get hold of personal information. However, this hijacker can also collect non-personal information automatically without your knowledge. The collected information can contain things such as your search queries, browser type, operating system type, IP address, Internet Service Provider domain name, and so on. This information will be used to present personalized ads for each unique user.

Where does Search.searchutilities.co come from?

Cyber security experts at Anti-spyware-101.com have concluded that Search.searchutilities.co is similar to Search.yourclassifiedscenter.com, Search.directionsandmap.com, Search.yourmapscenter.com, and several other hijackers. Apparently, they all come from the same creator called Polarity Technologies. This malware creator is well known by now as it has been releasing browser hijackers the end of 2016. Polarity Technologies is known for having its hijackers bundled with third-party software and featured on low-grade software distributing sites. Researchers say that the bundled software installers are most likely set to inject Search.searchutilities.co into your browser secretly, so you should always select custom or advanced installation and uncheck the respective checkboxes of all undesirable software and search engines.

How to remove Search.searchutilities.co

In concussion, Search.searchutilities.co is not a significant security threat to your PC, but it is still malicious in that it is set to replace your homepage address without your knowledge or approval. Its search results can redirect you to potentially malicious websites, so we suggest that you get rid of it before anything bad happens.