Foxstart.com

Foxstart.com is a general search engine portal that provides fields for searching for many popular sites throughout the Internet, with none of them classified as hazardous. However, not all the facts around Foxstart.com are benign – since Foxstart.com also has recently become the centerpiece in a new browser-hijacking campaign that uses PUPs and risky software to redirect your browser to Foxstart.com. Even if going to Foxstart.com doesn't hurt your PC, allowing a third party to take absolute control over your browser always may be considered a not-insignificant security problem. Most anti-malware products have sufficient threat databases to detect and remove any standard form of browser hijacker, including a Foxstart.com hijacker.

The Fox that's a Little Too Hot for Trotting to Your Browser

Instead of providing an individual search field, Foxstart.com is what is known as a 'Web portal,' or a site that offers links to a range of different sites, all organized by easy search engine accessibility. Malware experts haven't found any evidence that Foxstart.com tampers with the results of third party sites in any way, and currently consider Foxstart.com a completely safe Web domain for visits. Unfortunately, at least one threat author isn't content with Foxstart.com's natural state of traffic flow – since a campaign of browser hijacker attacks redirected people to Foxstart.com appears to be ongoing as of late 2013.

Foxstart.com hijacks haven't been identified as restricted to a single format and may cause symptoms such as:

• Redirects to Foxstart.com from any unrelated sites, but especially other search engine-based websites.
• Foxstart.com pop-ups or additional new tabs.
• Being forced to use Foxstart.com as your homepage.

Foxstart.com browser hijackers may affect a single type of Web browser or more than one of them, depending on their exact implementation. At this time, malware researchers haven't connected Foxstart.com hijacks to any individual browser add-on that would be easy to identify, and possession of passive anti-malware protection may be required for detecting a Foxstart.com hijacker or blocking its installation.

Stopping Foxstart.com Hijacks Before They Can Get Started

With the distribution routes preferred by Foxstart.com browser hijackers still unidentified, anyone interested in keeping their browser from being forced over to Foxstart.com should keep general browser security protocols in mind. Disabling scripts, double-checking download sources and scanning files before opening them are some of the most obvious defenses that SpywareRemove.com malware experts always would suggest. PC threats responsible for browser hijacks often are low-level ones with trivial attack functions, but heavily-invasive Trojans with additional features also have been found causing browser redirects, upon occasion.

Any strategy for deleting a Foxstart.com hijacker should incorporate reliable brands of anti-malware products that can detect threats with hidden files and settings changes. These components of a typical browser hijacker infection may not be obvious on sight, but still may erode the safety and privacy of your browser until they're removed.