Feb 3, 2017

Get Hijacked by the Seek123.net Virus? How to Delete It?

If I should be asked whether it is reliable to use the Seek123.net to search resources on the internet, I would say you are putting your computer at high risk. If you should ask me what harms does this search engine do to your system, I would have to say that what problems a browser hijacker can bring about is exactly what damages this search facility is going to cause. Yes, the Seek123.net is a virus that you should get rid of as fast as you can any time you find it on your system.

Important Information about the Seek123.net

When the Seek123.net is typed into your web browser, a page of the search engine like the one in the screenshot will appear in front of you. However, the feature of it is questionable. On the top right corner of the page, there exists such buttons as “Add Search to Your Site”, “Search Plugin” and “Make Homepage”. The user is not suggested to click any of these buttons, because it will result in the alternation of your preference settings. Followed the rules for the end users in the EULA is the seemingly honesty statement of the Seek123.net. It states that the resources such as computer programs is not reviewed, examined and controlled by the Seek123.net. Unpleasant, improper or offensive content and errors that caused by the technical inaccuracies or typographical negligence may be come across by the users during the use of the Seek123.net. It adds that the users are held responsible to protect themselves and their devices from the potential threats by necessarily taking any precautions. If you should say that all the content of the Seek123.net is dangerous and harmful, I would say while it is not accurate but daily use of the Seek123.net will increase the chance of introducing all kinds of infections. The Bing searching tool may possibly result in infection, but the chance will be much lower.

Are those preference settings such as homepage still the same as before or have already been changed into the Seek123.net? Are you troubled by the problem that every time the settings are restored, not sooner than the computer is restarted, the Seek123.net nastily show up again? If you should take these occurrences as inessential, I would say you are putting your system at high risk. Such more violent viruses as worms and Trojan horses will sooner manage to slither into computer and wreak havoc on your system if it manages to stay long enough in your computer. By then, damages will not be limited to the complete destruction of the computer, more disastrous occurrences such as identity theft crime and great financial loss will probably follow therefore.

How to Protect Your Computer from the Seek123.net Virus?

More than often, a browser hijacker like the Seek123.net will take advantage of the freeware or shareware programs to distribute itself. It is suggested to take some time to investigate whether the program you want to install on your system is trustworthy or not when you should use a shareware or freeware in your computer. You can check the reviews of the program written by users who have used before you. If there existed any negative aspects related the program being reported, you should think twice before actually installing it on your system. Even if you have found a program that are reviewed to be reliable, it is still needed to take another precaution to stop such viruses as the Seek123.net from slithering into your system by selecting the “Advance” or “Custom” option during the installation of the program. The “Advance” or “Custom” mode will allow you to kick off any unwanted bundled programs including the Seek123.net out of your system.

The instructions followed require certain levels of computer skills. If you’re not sure and are afraid to make any critical mistakes during the operation, please live chat with YooCare Expert now.

Seek123.net Redirect Image:

Seek123.net

Malicious Browser Hijacker Manual Removal Guides:

Seek123.net hijacks your browser to redirect your web search results and changes the homepage and browser settings. To completely uninstall it from an infected system, manual removal is the first choice because sometimes antivirus software cannot pick up the exact computer threat timely or remove it permanently. Now most browser hijackers are quite similar to spyware and adware threats and therefore cannot be removed with the help of popular antivirus products. Users can follow the manual guide here to get rid of this browser hijacker completely.

1. Clear all the cookies of the Seek123.net from your affected browsers.

Since this tricky Seek123.net virus is able to use cookies for tracing and tracking the internet activity of users, it is suggested users clean up all the cookies before a complete removal.

Google Chrome:

Click on the “Tools” menu and click the “Clear browsing data” button.
Select “Delete cookies and other site data” to delete all cookies from the list.
clear-browser-data

Internet Explorer:
Open Internet explorer window
Click the “Tools” button
Point to “safety” and then click “delete browsing history”
Tick the “cookies” box, then click “delete”

delete-browsing-history-1

Mozilla Firefox:

Click on Tools, then Options, select Privacy
Click “Remove individual cookies”
In the Cookies panel, click on “Show Cookies”
To remove a single cookie click on the entry in the list and click on the “Remove Cookie”
To remove all cookies click on the “Remove All Cookies” button

Remove-All-Cookie1

2. End the malicious process of the Seek123.net from Task Manager.

Once Seek123.net hijacker is installed, computer user may notice that CPU usage randomly jumps to 100 percent. At any time Windows always has many running processes. A process is an individual task that the computer runs. In general, the more processes, the more work the computer has to do and the slower it will run. If your system’s CPU spike is constant and remain at a constant 90-95%, users should check from Task Manager and see if there is a suspicious process occupying the system resources and then end it immediately.

(The name of the virus process can be random.)

Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to quickly bring up Task Manager Window:

task-manager

3. Show hidden files and folders.

Open Folder Options by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking Appearance and Personalization, and then clicking Folder Options.

Click the View tab.

Under Advanced settings, click Show hidden files and folders, uncheck Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) and then click OK.

show-hidden-files

4. Delete all the malicious files related to Seek123.net hijacker manually.

%AppData%Local[random].exe
C:\Documents and Settings\LocalService\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\*.exe

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main StartPage
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

Video Shows You How to Safely Modify Windows Registry Editor:

Conclusion

Seek123.net is in no way considered to be a trustworthy searching facility that can replace any famous engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo and so on. Fortunately, it is reported that the Safari web browsers fall out of the targets of the Seek123.net virus. In the End User License Agreement, the users are required to follow some rules that prohibit from uploading objectionable, dangerous or negative content. This may impress on the users that the Seek123.net is a trustworthy searching facility. But many reports point it out that instead of a reliable search engine, the Seek123.net should be classified into the malware category called browser hijacker. So, any time when you find the Seek123.net on your web browser, it is recommended to take any steps to remove it from your system completely without any delay.

Note: If you have little knowledge about computer and do not know how to operate the removal, please contact experts from YooCare Online Tech Support for further help.

Published by & last updated on February 3, 2017 6:38 pm

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