mentioned below :

• The browser home page has changed without your knowledge.
• The browser is redirecting to the website(s) that you never intend to visit.
• Unwanted bookmarks have been added to your browser.
• A lot of annoying pop-up windows and ads are appearing in your browser.
• Your computer is running very slow.
• A new search bar is added to your browser without your knowledge.
• You cannot access certain web pages like anti-malware web pages or other security-related web pages.
• Browser settings have changed without your knowledge.
• New toolbars are added to your browser without your knowledge.
• Some browser hijackers even show fake security alerts.
• New programs are installed on your computer without your knowledge. You may also see suspicious files present in your system.
• You may see increased network activity from your computer. This malware often uses the network to transfer collected sensitive data to the attackers, which increases the network usage of the computer. Because of the same reason, your computer may be considerably slow once it is connected to the Internet.
• You may also see unknown programs are requesting access. Browser hijackers often install rogue programs that may require permissions, like accessing the Internet to start their malicious activities.
• Security programs installed on your computer have been uninstalled or disabled without your knowledge.
• Sometimes browser hijackers can further hack your email account and send spam emails from your account. Please note that attackers can send spam emails from your email account even without hacking your email account. They often use email spoofing to solve that purpose. (How do attackers spoof emails, and how to prevent it?)
• If the browser hijacker has infected your computer with malware like a Remote Access Trojan (What is a Remote Access Trojan?), the attackers may even get full control of your computer remotely. As a result, you may see suspicious activities like suspicious movements of mouse and keyboard activities on your computer.
• In some worst cases, the malware can even change passwords of your account, like a local computer account or email account, and exploit that.

Some most common browser hijackers

This article mentions a couple of the most common browser hijackers and how they affect a computer. I am sure if you have experienced a sudden slowdown of your system or display of unwanted ads or pornographic sites, you can recognize a few of them in your system.

Ask Toolbar – This hijacker comes as a bundle with software from an untrusted source. It changes the browser settings like the homepage and default search engine. It also displays unwanted adverts. You can uninstall it from your system’s Add/Remove Programs.

Babylon Toolbar – This also comes with software from an untrusted source. It changes the browser homepage. It changes the default search engine to isearch.babylon.com. It also installs additional adware and displays unwanted adverts, sponsored links, and spurious search results. The program also steals user data like search terms etc. This also can be uninstalled from the system’s Add/Remove Programs.

Conduit Search – This also comes with software from unwanted sources. It changes the browser’s default search engine, the home page, the new tab page, and several other settings. Once installed, it steals sensitive user information and transfers those data to a malicious third party. The users infected with this hijacker can experience phishing attempts. It also installs other malware like adware or spyware on the computer. Uninstalling this malware is not easy. It changes system settings in such a way that the computer starts showing several system errors after the uninstallation. As long as it is installed, it prevents any change of browser settings from the malicious one.

CoolWebSearch – It redirects users to the malicious homepage of the CoolWebSearch search engine. The results of this search engine are mostly sponsored links. This hijacker can be …