Adlinker.net

Adlinker.net is a domain for redirecting advertising traffic, and does not, as of the latest reports by malware experts, host or promote any threatening content. Although not classified as a hazardous website, Adlinker.net has had recent incidental involvement in the activities of some Potentially Unwanted Programs and threats that flood this site with traffic for generating revenue. Symptoms of any unsolicited contact with Adlinker.net may be a symptom of a security breach by threats or adware, which you should resolve through the use of appropriate security programs, such as anti-malware scanners.

The Website Links Opening Automatically

While some PC security products have associated contact with Adlinker.net with potentially threatening Web content, Adlinker.net does not host malign content in and of itself. Adlinker.net isn't unsafe to visit directly, but may expose you to hostile advertising content delivered by third parties unintentionally. As a redirection agent for advertisement traffic, Adlinker.net only came to malware researchers' notice during the 2014-era campaigns by threatening and unwanted software to exploit Adlinker.net without the host PC user's knowledge.

Rather than taking the form of common browser hijacks or redirects, these Adlinker.net campaigns initiated contact using the format of background memory processes. A native Windows component, dllhost.exe, was subverted for initializing the connection. PCs without appropriate security software installed may not receive any alerts about this activity, which you can monitor through Task Manager and equivalent memory utilities. In most cases, contact with Adlinker.net also coincided with significant drops in PC performance and spikes in resource usage, which are common indications of the illicit simulation of advertisement traffic on a repeated basis.

Cutting the Links to Advertisements You Never Asked to Receive

Most Adlinker.net campaigns don't load advertisements for the PC's user to view, and show no symptoms besides the ones noted previously (which are optional). However, malware experts note that general anti-malware solutions should be able to detect either the unauthorized memory processes associated with Adlinker.net – or their precipitation of contact with potentially threatening Web content. PCs using the latest version of Windows are possible targets for these attacks, which use distribution channels still subject to investigation. At this time, other operating systems have yet to be confirmed for any potential vulnerability to the same attacks, although they may remain vulnerable to similar techniques exploited by other PC threats.

As of this article's date, malware researchers still are in the process of identifying the threat and PUPs that may be responsible for the exploitation of host PCs for generating non-consensual advertisement traffic. Like any PC suffering from subversion to implement similar crimes such as DDoS attacks, you should be able to rely on anti-malware and other security products that can identify any unusual abuse of your PC's resources. However, you also may wish to get into the habit of monitoring your active memory processes. The visual identification of unusual processes – or standard ones with oddly high resource counts, can be an easy clue that you need to scan your computer.