Page Hijacking Explained

• Oct. 23, 2003

As if you didn't need yet another reason to keep your operating system up-to-date, there is a new threat out there that will affect your internet browsing experience, if you let it.

The new threat is called page hijacking. It occurs when a malicious Trojan is executed on your computer which allows the software to replace the URL you really want to go to with another one. For example, if you wanted to go to MSN's home page, this software would monitor the URL and redirect you to another site altogether.

I suppose it is a way to artificially inflate traffic to a site, to make it appear as if it is more important than it actually is. To unsuspecting users, who may not know how to fix this problem, it could turn into a nightmare.

How do you get it? Sometimes, browsing to and visiting specific pages on specific sites causes a popup to be displayed that redirected the visitor to a different Web page. Being redirected to that Web page appears to cause the Trojan to be downloaded to a visitor's system and then executed.

So, how do you fix it? Generally these types of applications exploit vulnerability in the operating system. Usually updating the OS will fix the problem. If there isn't an OS patch, then likely your virus scanner would be able to fix the problem. You want to be sure that you regularly update your virus scanner as well.

Sometimes, neither a patch or virus update can fix the problem. In these cases, you may be able to use a spyware remover like "Spybot Search and Destroy" or "AdAware" to detect and remove these programs.

Rob Sullivan
Production Manager
Searchengineposition.com
Search Engine Positioning
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