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Search.smartaddressbar.com Redirect Virus Description
The Search.smartaddressbar.com redirect virus is a virus that makes system changes and redirects the user to the http://search.smartaddressbar.com website when performing a search through the various popular search engines such as Google, Yahoo, and Bing. The attack will make these changes regardless of which browser the user has installed, including Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox. It is a tricky attack put together by hackers and it has the ability to avoid most virus scanning programs, making it virtually impossible to notice until after it has been installed successfully.
The user will begin to immediately get frustrated as every time a search is performed they will be brought to the malicious webpage that this toolbar hijack redirects to. The Search.smartaddressbar.com site is made to resemble a traditional search engine and someone who doesn’t spend a lot of time online or perform many searches might not notice anything is wrong the first couple of times. What they will notice is that all of the searches performed will return results that do not in any way relate to the keywords that were entered into the search bar. This will redirect the user to other sites containing malicious attacks and the virus has the ability to install these other attacks as well.
Note: Do not want to lose more data and personal information to this Search.smartaddressbar.com redirect thing? Cannot uninstall it from Control Panel? Contact YooSecurity Online PC Experts now for removal assistance.
Screenshot of Search.smartaddressbar.com Hijacker
How Does This Redirect Thing Attack A Target Computer?
When more threats are picked up the user will notice that the computer will react much slower and regular operations such as opening files will have a sluggish response. This is because these attacks are alerting the system settings and absorbing the extra memory of the CPU. If these are not stopped they will drain all of the memory and the system will eventually fail and crash. It is important to clean the system as quickly as possible in order to avoid a complete system crash. If it is left to install additional attacks there is a chance that the user will not be able to restore his or her computer after the crash and all files and data could be lost forever if they are not backed up on an external drive or a cloud server.
While the redirect is annoying and the virus can potentially ruin the computer there is an even greater risk. The Search.smartaddressbar.com redirect virus allows the hackers to remotely access the entire computer and they are able to look for valuable personal and financial information. They will look for personal identification information such as social security numbers or birthdates so they can attempt to steal the identity of the user. They will also search for bank records including account numbers or credit card numbers. This is the information that they are after and they will use it to commit bank fraud themselves or they will sell the information on the black market to large crime organizations.
How to Remove Search.smartaddressbar Virus Without Coming Back?
To successfully remove the whole trace of this redirect thing, first of all you need to stop the running processes through the Task Manager. Next manually get rid of Search.smartaddressbar.com browser hijacker from the registry editor.
Step A: Open Windows Task Manager to end process related to the Search.smartaddressbar bogus search engine. To do that, press Ctrl+Alt+Del keys at the same time to pull up Window Task Manager.
Step B: Open Control Panel from Start menu and search for Folder Options. Go to Folder Options window, under View tab, tick Show hidden files and folders and non-tick Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK.
Step C: Press Windows+R keys to pull up Run box and type in regedit to open Registry Editor.
Step D: Delete all these associating files and registry entries of Search.smartaddressbar.com Hijacker Redirect virus in Registry Editor as below:
%AppData%\[rnd]
%AllUsersProfile%\Programs\{random}\
%CommonStartMenu%\Programs\Users\””
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System “DisableRegedit” = “”.exe.dll
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Settings\{.exe}
HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\DisallowRun=””
Similar video on how to remove Search.smartaddressbar.com redirect virus:
Summary
Once in the system, they can install additional programs, such as a keystroke recorder that will transmit every single keystroke to the hackers and with that data they can match it up to the browser history and instantly get very valuable information! They can quickly obtain login details for email accounts and sites such as Facebook and Twitter. With this they can them spam the users contacts and attempt to extort money by saying that the user is in trouble and needs to have money sent Western Union. If they are able to hack the users personal accounts there is a lot of damage that can be done quickly.
Do not take any chances and get rid of this virus as quickly as possible. In order to fully remove the data we suggest that the manual removal instructions listed below be followed. This will help rid the PC of the Search.smartaddressbar.com redirect virus and get it back operating the way it should.
Note: Still having problems with Search.smartaddressbar virus after trying all steps you found from forums? To avoid any mistakes, Please contact YooSecurity Online Experts now to save your computer in time.
Published by Tony Shepherd & last updated on April 6, 2013 11:59 pm
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