Question how does "encrypt search" present to users to get added to their browser ?

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
1,662
5
81
Had a friend who wound up with this piece of junk added to her Firefox browser (and in the process broke her WIFI connectivity to her hotspot).

But when I ask her about it she swears up and down that she did not do anything to make this happen.

I see that by google searching encrypt search that you are taken to "their" website which has links on it which allows an unwary users to click on and get
snared.

But my question is is there anyway that she could have just innocently been surfing the Internet and for this trash to get attached to her browser with zero
interaction on her part, i.e. without her going to some trash site and clicking on a link that had a purpose not clearly revealed by it's labeling/name - any way that this encrypt search can get attached to browser by just merely have a browser opened ?

Thanks.
 

wpshooter

Golden Member
Mar 9, 2004
1,662
5
81
Thanks for your reply, however at this link:

https://securingtomorrow.mcafee.com/consumer/family-safety/drive-by-download/

It clearly says "These downloads may be placed on otherwise innocent and normal-looking websites. You might receive a link in an email, text message, or social media post that tells you to look at something interesting on a site. When you open the page, while you are enjoying the article or cartoon, the download is installing on your computer."

The key part being "when you open the page", so the user IS doing something to trigger the problem although quite unintentional as it may be.

However, I STRONGLY agree with you about the importance of keeping everything up-to-date (which is daily - if not more often for me) but if you know most people like I do, keeping their computer up-to-date is the very last thing on their minds and I know that most updates can be supposedly done automatically but IMHO, bad method - needs to be a dedicated task.
 

balloonshark

Diamond Member
Jun 5, 2008
6,288
2,682
136
Of course you would be browsing, clicking on emails, and using the internet normally. By no action I meant not actually installing anything on purpose. Sorry I wasn't clear. One year the superbowl website was installing malware if you visited and had some sort of vulnerability.

IMHO there is no such thing as a safe site so I run my browser sandboxed. In theory nothing can get out of the sandbox and on my real system unless I move it manually to my download folder which is also forced to run in a sandbox. There are other ways to deal with drive-bys like anti-executables, behavior blockers, etc. but they require a little bit of knowledge. But the first line of defense is always keep your OS, programs and extensions updated.