Smartnewtab.com

Posted: January 26, 2016

Threat Metric

The Threat Meter is a malware assessment that SpywareRemove.com's research team is able to give every identifiable malware threat. Our Threat Meter includes several criteria based off of specific malware threats to value their severity, reach and volume. The Threat Meter is able to give you a numerical breakdown of each threat's initial Threat Level, Detection Count, Volume Count, Trend Path and Percentage Impact. The overall ranking of each threat in the Threat Meter is a basic breakdown of how all threats are ranked within our own extensive malware database. The scoring for each specific malware threat can be easily compared to other emerging threats to draw a contrast in its particular severity. The Threat Meter is a useful tool in the endeavor of seeking a solution to remove a threat or pursue additional analytical research for all types of computer users.

The following fields listed on the Threat Meter containing a specific value, are explained in detail below:

Threat Level: The threat level scale goes from 1 to 10 where 10 is the highest level of severity and 1 is the lowest level of severity. Each specific level is relative to the threat's consistent assessed behaviors collected from SpyHunter's risk assessment model.

Detection Count: The collective number of confirmed and suspected cases of a particular malware threat. The detection count is calculated from infected PCs retrieved from diagnostic and scan log reports generated by SpyHunter.

Volume Count: Similar to the detection count, the Volume Count is specifically based on the number of confirmed and suspected threats infecting systems on a daily basis. High volume counts usually represent a popular threat but may or may not have infected a large number of systems. High detection count threats could lay dormant and have a low volume count. Criteria for Volume Count is relative to a daily detection count.

Trend Path: The Trend Path, utilizing an up arrow, down arrow or equal symbol, represents the level of recent movement of a particular threat. Up arrows represent an increase, down arrows represent a decline and the equal symbol represent no change to a threat's recent movement.

% Impact (Last 7 Days): This demonstrates a 7-day period change in the frequency of a malware threat infecting PCs. The percentage impact correlates directly to the current Trend Path to determine a rise or decline in the percentage.

Ranking:	6,048
Threat Level:	2/10
Infected PCs:	80

First Seen:	August 1, 2023
Last Seen:	October 15, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Smartnewtab.com is a website that a browser-hijacking campaign promotes by redirecting your browser to Smartnewtab.com by force. While malware analysts have found no evidence of harmful content hosting itself at Smartnewtab.com, contact with this site should be undertaken with caution due to its recent history and associations. Smartnewtab.com hijackers may be installed automatically, and be related to the presence of other, unwanted software, all of which are deletable by the appropriate anti-malware and anti-adware products.

The New Tab that Thinks It's Smarter than You

Smartnewtab.com is a Web domain most recently registered on January 20th, but, in a matter of days, already benefited from a browser-hijacking campaign redirecting traffic towards it. For the moment, malware experts only have verified Smartnewtab.com hijackers targeting Windows machines. Chrome users also are strongly suspected of being at high risk due to the abuse of an associated extension, 'Smartnewtab,' although not all affected computer users have identified any visible browser extensions.

Smartnewtab.com hijackings may redirect your browser to Smartnewtab.com or auto-generate new tabs for the site automatically. Smartnewtab.com hijackers show no inclinations of blocking deliberate website destinations currently, but also offer no leeway in avoiding loading Smartnewtab.com's content. Common tactics involved with similar campaigns may redirect the flow of traffic towards advertising affiliates, or even promote hoaxes or threatening content. Despite these risks, no examples of the latter are being hosted at Smartnewtab.com currently.

Malware experts also verified Smartnewtab.com's association with spamming activities, such as unsolicited e-mail messages, self-promotional forum posts, and social network advertising.

Outsmarting the Tab You Didn't Want to See

Smartnewtab.com is representative of the continuing efforts of unwanted software developers to compromise Web browsers for the sake of their personal website traffic. While Smartnewtab.com's administrators are arguably commendable for their short-term productivity, in the long run, malware experts are forced to recommend avoiding the website and its affiliates, which have shown an urgent proclivity towards poor business practices. However, loading Smartnewtab.com is not an immediate detriment to your PC's safety, capable of loading corrupted scripts or other content that could result in additional security compromises.

Chrome users aware of past threats into their browsers as noted by malware experts (including adware like Mgid Ads, as well as wholesale browser 'replacements' like the Ghokswa Browser) also should be experienced at inspecting their browser's list of extensions. This periodic precaution can help you remove the most direct means by which software developers could exert control over which pages your browser loads by default. In addition to removing unwanted extensions and add-ons, you also may need to reset the browser cache or, in extreme scenarios, the system's Hosts file. However, Smartnewtab.com hijackers don't install themselves without the help from third parties, which is why scanning your PC with a reliable security program always should be included in any solution strategy.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

smartnewtab.com