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Compare.us.com

Posted: June 4, 2012

Compare.us.com Screenshot 1Compare.us.com is a shopping-comparison search engine that compares prices for various products so that visitors can easily snatch up the best deals. While SpywareRemove.com malware research team hasn't seen overt indications of malicious content or promotion of such from Compare.us.com, Compare.us.com has, nonetheless, become intertwined with the malware industry due to its promotion by browser-redirecting PC threats. Redirects to Compare.us.com and similar sites are a common form of browser or search engine hijack that many types of hostile software may use, and such symptoms are often linked to attacks that can involve rootkits, spyware or adware. Even though a visit to Compare.us.com now and then isn't necessarily going to cause harm to your PC, it's still recommended that you use suitable anti-malware programs to disinfect any PC threat that redirects you to Compare.us.com against your will.

How Browser Hijackers Grease the Wheels to Compare.us.com

Redirect attacks involving Compare.us.com typically are the product of search engine hijacks or, as they're colloquially known, a Google Redirect Virus. These redirects will monitor any attempts to use popular search engines (first and foremost, Google, but other websites such as Bing and Yahoo Search are often included) and redirect any searches to Compare.us.com. These redirects might occur when you first visit your search engine's site, when you try to enter a search or when you try to click a link that was the results of a successful search. Redirects to Compare.us.com can often include other symptoms that are related to browser-hijacking functionality such as pop-up advertisements or unwanted changes to your homepage.

As of the time of this writing, Compare.us.com hasn't shown any indications of hosting or promoting malicious content. However, repeated redirects to Compare.us.com should be considered a strong sign of malicious software on your PC. Some other functions that SpywareRemove.com malware experts have commonly found to be used by PC threats that use redirects for promoting Compare.us.com and similar sites include:

  • Stealing personal information, such as account passwords, with a variety of techniques as per spyware attacks. Information that's transmitted through your browser should be considered especially vulnerable.
  • Reduced security settings for your web browser and overall operating system; for example, a browser hijacker for Compare.us.com may reduce your security settings against invalidly-identified executable files. These attacks typically use Registry-based changes that are difficult for casual PC users to detect.
  • Adware-related attacks, including pop-up windows, hyperlinks that are added to select keywords and changes to your default browser settings that promote a variety of unwanted sites.

How to Make Compare.us.com a Choice Instead of a Necessity

Compare.us.com redirects and similar forms of the Google Redirect Virus should typically be removed by dedicated anti-malware products, since many of them make alterations to critical components of your operating system. While Windows is the predominantly vulnerable platform for these redirect attacks, browser hijackers that promote Compare.us.com and other search engines are also capable of infecting other brands of operating systems such as Mac and Linux. Due to the aforementioned risk of information theft and other attacks, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers encourage prompt action whenever you're faced with a PC threat that redirects your browser to Compare.us.com.

Ideal disinfection routines will utilize Safe Mode or other methods of disabling unnecessary software that might hinder system scans. After that, simply scanning your PC should be enough to remove all but the most sophisticated of Compare.us.com-promoting PC threats – although, in the case of rootkits and similar high-level threats, you may also be required to take additional steps to protect your computer.

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