StartBrowser – What is it?

“StartBrowser” search hijacker is a potentially unwanted application (PUA)¹, that is spread as a plugin for your web browser. It is typically marketed as an add-on for Chrome or Firefox, that assists to browse some special info, as an example, about sporting activity events, make your browser far more safe, allow downloading of any video clip, et cetera. Also, this app adds the “Managed by your organization” feature (on Chrome browsers).

However, the “StartBrowser” plugin is quite pointless since all such features are already built-in to your web browser and/or system. Such advertising slogans are targeted at low-skilled computer users, for example, pensioners or schoolchildren. However frequently even expert users are getting caught on such a lure. In specific cases, this hijacker is distributed along with free software.

How harmful is StartBrowser hijacker?

Besides its uselessness, StartBrowser hijacker is also rather harmful for web browser utilization. It modifies your search engine to its specific – Startbrowser.co, and also changes your background, putting its watermark on your background image (or, occasionally, changing it to default with the specified sign).

In addition to visual modifications done by StartBrowser hijacker, you can notice that a couple of your search inquiries are redirecting to the uncertain sites, filled with links and advertisements – so-called doorway websites. Such sites can contain links for malware downloads. The possibility of redirecting rises if you try to start Google search page by force.

But all these actions are more bothersome than truly hazardous. The greatest hazard, primarily for people who have a huge amount of confidential information in their web browsers, is embedded in data gathering functions. Cookie files, chats, often-visited websites, as well as other activities are easily collected by StartBrowser hijacker.