About SmashTab hijacker origins

SmashTab search hijacker is a potentially unwanted application (PUA)¹, that is distributed as a plugin for your web browser. It is typically shared as an add-on for Chrome or Firefox, that aids to browse some special details, for example, about sporting activity events, make your web browser a lot more secure, allow downloading of any kind of web video, and so on.

Nonetheless, the SmashTab plugin is pretty pointless due to the fact that all such features are currently embedded to your browser and/or Windows. Such advertising slogans are targeted on low-skilled computer users, such as pensioners or schoolchildren. But sometimes even expert users are getting caught on such an attraction. In specific cases, this hijacker is spread together with free apps.

How harmful is SmashTab hijacker?

Besides its impracticality, SmashTab hijacker is additionally rather hazardous for web browser usage. It alters your search engine to its specific – smashtab.net, and likewise modifies your background, putting its watermark on your background image (or, occasionally, altering it to default with the mentioned sign).

Besides visual changes done by SmashTab hijacker, you can see that several of your search queries are redirecting to the unfamiliar web pages, filled with links and advertisements – so-called doorway websites. Such sites can contain the links for malware downloading. The possibility of redirecting boosts if you try to open Google search page forcibly.

But all these actions are much more frustrating than really hazardous. The biggest danger, particularly for people who have a lot of secret information in their web browsers, is embedded in data collecting functions. Cookie files, conversations, often-visited web pages as well as various other activities are simply gathered by SmashTab hijacker.