Search Engage
Posted: April 25, 2016
Threat Metric
The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:
Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.
Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.
Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.
Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.
% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.
Threat Level: | 8/10 |
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Infected PCs: | 40 |
First Seen: | April 25, 2016 |
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Last Seen: | May 5, 2022 |
OS(es) Affected: | Windows |
Search Engage is a Web-browsing extension that may reset your homepage and search engine to affiliated websites. Like any Potentially Unwanted Program, Search Engage's capacity for promoting arbitrary sites may put your browser and PC at risk of being exposed to hostile or misleading content. Unless you've installed Search Engage deliberately and intend to use it, malware experts advise uninstalling Search Engage from your browser with a suitable anti-malware or anti-adware tool.
The Hidden Extension Presently Engaging Your Attention
Many Potentially Unwanted Programs earn their classification, not so much by their features, but by how they may gain access to your PC. Although Search Engage is one such PUP, which you may acquire through the Chrome Web Store, Search Engage also may distribute itself in bundles with other products. Some of the products confirmed for distributing Search Engage installations include free graphics editing applications and 'auto clicker' tools that may simulate fake advertisement traffic. Most bundles promoted Search Engage's installation as a 'recommended' option that's opted in by default, although PC owners could opt out at any time.
Search Engage installs itself to the Chrome browser, using the format of an extension. During its installation, Search Engage also may uninstall other, supposedly 'conflicting' extensions from your browser automatically. Search Engage then resets your default homepage and search engine preferences to sites affiliated with it. PC users are prevented from resetting these changes or even uninstalling Search Engage, which protects itself with a Group Policy-based install method.
Malware experts don't endorse Search Engage or its affiliates. However, past research into associated websites has shown no evidence of Search Engage's using its browser-hijacking functions for the purpose of promoting threats or illicit content intentionally.
Disengaging Your Browser from a Conflict in Search Preferences
Although the differences between threats and simply 'unwanted' programs like Search Engage are sharp, the bottom line may remain the same: PC owners dealing with software that results in a drastically worsened and, in some cases, outright unsafe experience. Programs like Search Engage may be responsible for the distribution of fake software updates, exploit kits, and other delivery vehicles for actual threats. Consequentially, malware experts find that removing Search Engage is the best option for PC users with even slight hesitation about its theoretical advantages for Chrome.
Use PC security products with anti-PUP features for uninstalling Search Engage, which should be done while your browser is kept closed. Follow Google's recommendations for removing any remaining settings-related symptoms that persist afterward. Malware experts have correlated no other symptoms with Search Engage, although bundle installers often may include additional PUPs, none of which may be identified by their names necessarily during the time of their installation.
While Search Engage bills itself as an advantageous search enhancement product, its installation methods bring into question whether its benefits are for its users or its advertising partners. Perhaps most importantly, its campaign shows that even trusted websites like those operated by Google sometimes may be purveyors of products that you're unlikely to want on your computer.
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