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Bing redirect on Mac and Windows computers

Monday 16 August 2021, 10:03PM

By David Blaine

1015 views

bing redirect
bing redirect Credit: David Blaine

Learn about one of the prevalent adware threats currently in the wild, namely Bing redirect. The tutorial below covers intricate distribution tactics leveraged by the virus authors, highlights its disruptive behavior on an infested computer, and provides comprehensive DIY instructions to remove Bing redirect.

As abominable as it is, creating and distributing adware applications is just a means to an end for its makers, the final goal being to make money out of an ever-expanding network of contaminated computers. The app called Bing redirect has been made to exist in complete neglect of such things as authorization and user’s choice when it comes to Internet browsing. Its spreading is usually tricky because it’s either downloaded by people who are simply not informed of all the shady features, or it bundles with other files so that the victim knows nothing about the upcoming compromise. Since the moment this adware is in, the term “user preferences” loses its primordial semantics because the homepage for IE, Firefox and Chrome gets automatically changed to bing.com. Besides that, the default search engine accessible from the corresponding browser omnibox undergoes the same distortion.

Whereas bing redirect does not pose risk itself, it’s annoying and unwanted. This landing page incorporates sponsored links and advertisement banners along with search results proper; moreover there is an imbalance in the ads’ favor. And yet, this is a powerful tool for converting illicitly acquired web traffic into tangible commercial gain. The worst part, of course, is that you don’t choose to recurrently visit that site – someone decided that for you, which is a problem that really needs attending to.