Sweetsearch.com

Posted: July 8, 2013

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:	5,025
Threat Level:	1/10
Infected PCs:	18,512

First Seen:	July 8, 2013
Last Seen:	October 16, 2023
OS(es) Affected:	Windows

Sweetsearch.com is a search engine site that claims to provide results that are tailored to the needs of students doing academic research. SpywareRemove.com malware experts are unable to find any traces of false advertising on Sweetsearch.com's part, but have found that some browser hijackers are busy promoting Sweetsearch.com through malicious browser redirects. Even though Sweetsearch.com is not a malicious site, browser hijacks that redirect you to Sweetsearch.com are dangerous to your PC as a whole and to your browser's state of security. Anti-malware applications, when available, should be used for deleting any PC threats interested in promoting Sweetsearch.com, regardless of whether they do so through pop-ups, browser redirects or other attacks.

The Bitter Flavor of a Redirect to Sweetsearch.com

While not one of the largest search engines on the Web, Sweetsearch.com does appear to filter its results appropriately and back up all of its claims of usefulness for research purposes with suitable content. SpywareRemove.com malware analysts became truly interested in Sweetsearch.com only when they first noticed browser hijackers that promoted Sweetsearch.com – which normally are reserved for substantially more disreputable sites than a functional and independent search engine. Symptoms that have been linked to Sweetsearch.com browser problems include:

Pop-up windows displaying content from Sweetsearch.com.
Unrelated advertisements through pop-ups, embedded banners and other methods.
Search engine redirects to Sweetsearch.com.

These attacks are some of the typical symptoms of a browser hijacker, adware and, in some cases, Potentially Unwanted Programs (often abbreviated as PUPs). In the majority of such attacks, any default browser features that would block the redirects, advertisements and/or pop-ups are bypassed. Insofar as SpywareRemove.com malware researchers can determine, Sweetsearch.com redirects and other Sweetsearch.com-related attacks have not been noted to be linked to any single brand of browser or browser add-on.

Getting the Sour Out of Your Socializing with Sweetsearch.com

Sweetsearch.com is not a danger to your PC and, unlike most search sites that benefit from browser hijacks, does not appear to employ disingenuous search results or a suspicious privacy policy that would be indicative of an excessive degree of data-harvesting activities. Some circumstantial evidence has pointed to Sweetsearch.com using spam-related activities to promote itself on various knowledge databases, but all of the actual content of Sweetsearch.com does show every sign of being legitimate. SpywareRemove.com malware researchers are comfortable in labeling Sweetsearch.com as a safe website, but still do recommend that you remove any threat that takes over your browser, even if it does so for the sake of otherwise-normal sites like Sweetsearch.com.

Low-level PC threats, including adware and browser hijackers interested in promoting Sweetsearch.com, can be removed most easily with anti-malware applications that are built for dealing with malicious software. Switching browsers, changing your browser's settings or uninstalling the affected software may combat some of the symptoms of the infection, but removing the malware related to Sweetsearch.com still will be necessary.

Technical Details

Additional Information

The following URL's were detected:

sweetsearch.com