MSN Redirect Virus

The MSN Redirect Virus is a casual or colloquial name for a browser hijacker that's predominantly detected by its attacks against the MSN website (and, in most cases, its search engine). However, a MSN Redirect Virus also may be capable of redirecting you from other websites, particularly popular search sites or your preferred homepage. Because the MSN Redirect Virus isn't a high-tech term and may be used to refer to many types of browser hijackers, including both low-level threats and high-level ones, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers suggest the usage of anti-malware programs to identify an MSN Redirect Virus more concretely than this and, hopefully, remove the MSN Redirect Virus from your computer. Contrary to popular expectations, browser hijackers like the MSN Redirect Virus rarely are connected to a specific browser and often include generic system components that should be removed by specialized software or a PC security professional.

When Loading the Wrong Website Could Mean You Have an MSN Redirect Virus

MSN Redirect Viruses, like most browser hijackers, have symptoms that can be detected easily, (although these attacks may not be the only attacks any particular type of MSN Redirect Virus is capable of using). A MSN Redirect Virus usually is detected after changes to your homepage settings that load unfamiliar websites or after attempts to use MSN.com result in you being redirected to different sites. In particular, redirected searches from MSN to other search sites – which may have questionable safety procedures or relevance-sorting techniques for their results – are very likely to occur in any MSN Redirect Virus infection.

SpywareRemove.com malware research team has seen symptoms typical to the MSN Redirect Virus in a range of different types of malware, most commonly, a MSN Redirect Virus will redirect you to a different site in order to profit off of your traffic. However, browser hijackers like the MSN Redirect Virus can be responsible for:

• Monitoring your web-browsing habits or confidential information transferred via your browser.
• Reducing the security settings of your browser to make it vulnerable to website-based attacks (like drive-by-downloads from the Blackhole Exploit Kit, a popular exploit package).
• Changing web page content with the insertion of unwanted advertisements, links or even phishing attacks that gather private information.
• Pop-up windows that display advertisements, fake online scanners, malware-promoting hoaxes, phishing scams, etc.

The Cure to the Common MSN Redirect Virus

Depending on the variant of MSN Redirect Virus involved in a specific attack, MSN Redirect Viruses also may include rootkit functions, backdoor functions or other attacks that can cause a high degree of damage to your operating system and its security features. Even though many samples of the MSN Redirect Virus are relatively harmless, SpywareRemove.com malware analysts encourage you to treat a MSN Redirect Virus as an unquestionable threat by default.

However, MSN Redirect Virus and browser hijackers for other websites tend to eschew advanced defenses. The majority of good anti-malware programs should be able to remove your MSN Redirect Virus with a simple scan. If you still experience redirects from MSN Redirect Virus or other issues after you've scanned your PC, SpywareRemove.com malware experts suggesting reattempting the scan in Safe Mode or using a boot from a USB device to disable any active PC threats.