Gamezdoka.org

Gamezdoka.org is a Russian gaming site that malware researchers would have little reason to examine, except for recent incidents involving browser hijackings. The recent campaign promoting Gamezdoka.org through automatic browser launches and redirects is significant both for its unusual methodology and the threat it represents to the security of all affected PCs. Systems showing symptoms of being forced to load Gamezdoka.org may be compromised by Trojans or other threats.

An Aggressive Example of Gaming News

Gamezdoka.org is a Russian news site specializing in popular game releases, such as the Battlefield series. Although Gamezdoka.org has no detectable content of a threatening nature, such as scripts that may install threats onto your PC, Gamezdoka.org has been part of a recent effort to hijack PC users' Web browsers. Unlike most browser hijackers that operate via browser add-ons that trigger their attacks as you browse the Web, Gamezdoka.org hijackings may launch the victims' browsers automatically.

Threatening software installed on the victim's PC may make changes to the Registry, along with other system modifications, which trigger the automatic launch of the Command Prompt with every Windows restart. Command Prompt is given a default instruction to load the website Ooov.net, which has known affiliations with confirmed corrupted websites. Then, Ooov.net may redirect your browser to Gamezdoka.org.

This method of forcing a website to load may affect any default browser, such as Chrome or Internet Explorer. It also ignores any default browser settings, such as your homepage choice. However, more importantly than those details, content loaded prior to the redirect to Gamezdoka.org may subject your PC to other attempts to exploit browser vulnerabilities.

Reading All about Your Games without a Gamezdoka.org Problem

This illegal Gamezdoka.org-promoting campaign was widely distributed in late November of 2014, with its ultimate intentions unclear. Although creators of sites like Gamezdoka.org merely may be interested in profiting from increasing traffic for Gamezdoka.org, they also may be exploiting Gamezdoka.org as a means of distracting computer users from other attacks that are part of the browser hijacking process. The affected computers so far may include a wide range of nationalities throughout Europe, Russia and various English-speaking nations. Meanwhile, malware researchers still are attempting to determine the distribution methods for these browser hijackers, which have no known ties to browser toolbars or other, typical parties at fault for similar attacks.

When considered in solitude, Gamezdoka.org isn't a threatening website, but its ties to compromised domains may necessitate that you protect your PC during any attempted browsing of this site. As always, being redirected to any site, including Gamezdoka.org, may be symptomatic of either installed threats or a Potentially Unwanted Program. Appropriate anti-malware and other security products should be used to scan any PC suffering from the symptoms noted in this article.