PasswordAssistant

As a utility that provides generic login-accessibility features for your browser, PasswordAssistant also is an adware program that changes your browser's settings to better enable the display of new advertisements that PasswordAssistant injects. Malware researchers don't consider PasswordAssistant equivalent to any kind of threat – but do rate PasswordAssistant as a PUP or Potentially Unwanted Program with little overall benefit for your browser. Because the display of poorly-controlled third party advertisements is a potential problem for both your PC's stability and its security, deleting PasswordAssistant simply should be your instinctive response in any case where you don't feel immediate and substantial benefits from its feature set.

The Assistant that Helps Your Browser Get a Load of Advertisements

PasswordAssistant markets itself as a useful login utility for helping with password management and use, but also includes a variety of functions not related to its ostensible purpose for existence. After extended analysis, the conclusion malware researchers came to was that PasswordAssistant's password features are secondary to its real purpose, which is to deliver advertisements to your browser. Like most other adware that malware researchers have seen previously, PasswordAssistant doesn't offer any kind of extensive settings to manage how its advertisements are loaded, and handles their presentation automatically.

PasswordAssistant shouldn't be mistaken with similarly-named programs such as Password-Assistant or Password Assistant, which are unrelated products that don't display the usual attributes of adware. The distinguishing factors behind PasswordAssistant can be boiled down to these characteristics:

• Creating pop-up (or pop-under) advertisements.
• Modifying Web pages to include links, banners or other advertising content that isn't part of the original website.
• Redirecting you to advertisements before you're allowed to load an unrelated site; a process known as interstitial Web advertising.

Depending on the version of PasswordAssistant you've installed, PasswordAssistant may affect a single browser with these 'features.' Alternately, more than one browser also may be affected at the same time.

Helping Yourself out of a PasswordAssistant's Assist

Advertisements from PasswordAssistant give your browser an unwanted vulnerability to third party attacks that often are distributed through poor-security advertisement networks, with both disguised threat downloads and phishing attacks being common issues. Even when ignoring the security issues of adware like PasswordAssistant, PasswordAssistant's persistent advertising presence is likely to cause browser performance issues, especially for low-end PCs. Malware experts find recommending the deletion of PasswordAssistant a natural conclusion.

While you remove PasswordAssistant, using additional anti-adware and anti-malware tools to analyze your PC also is strongly suggested. Particularly for unauthorized installations of PasswordAssistant, PasswordAssistant may be only one of several PUPs or other PC threats that are installed, none of which necessarily may show functions as obvious as a PasswordAssistant advertisement.