RecognitionAssist

RecognitionAssist is the name of a program/plugin bearing the characteristic features of a classic browser hijacker, although it may additionally bombard you with tons of advertisements, as well. Presumably belonging to the Adload malware family, RecognitionAssist is known to thrive among MacOS-based machines. Identical to many other hijackers, RecognitionAssist sets itself as your new default search engine, although it may act under the guise of the Yahoo Search engine.

RecognitionAssist also may be classified as a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) because it may land on your PC without your knowledge or permission. Unless you installed it at your discretion, that is. So, if you open your web browser only to find out that your default home page and search engine have been modified, chances are a browser hijacker such as RecognitionAssist has sown its seeds on your PC.

What can You Expect from RecognitionAssist?

If you’ve got the RecognitionAssist hijacker, you are likely to be redirected constantly to:

• The Safe Finder search page.
• Suspicious looking URL such as akamaihd(dot)net .
• Websites chock-full of advertisements tailored to your browsing history (yes, browser hijackers tend to track your online activity, and RecognitionAssist is sure to make no exception, either) specifically.

While there’s nothing wrong with advertising your business on the Web, a respected, legitimate advertiser would not rely on PUPs to win over new clients. Some of them, however, tend to use hijackers to spread malware-laden pop-ups. Still, others may redirect you to innocuous advertisements just to monetize your click on those advertisements. Over time, that endless stream of pop-ups, surveys, banners, or coupons may (and will) become quite annoying and off-putting.

As this was not enough, browser hijackers such as RecognitionAssist have a habit of running various scripts - again, automatically – which may lead to nothing but more PUPs in the end.

By using RecognitionAssist’s default search engine, you let someone you don’t know determine the advertisements you will be seeing based on your Web activity. Moreover, you let them collect a dime or two every time you click on a proposed advertisement. In an all-out scenario, you may end up having your browsing data sold to a third party. That’s why you’d be better off staying away from RecognitionAssist and/or any other browser hijacker out there.

Even though RecognitionAssist is nowhere near as severe a threat as let's say ransomware, it may prove just as persistent to go away. So, if resetting your browser fails to remove it from your system, you may need to pick a reputable anti-malware solution instead.