Searchnu.com

Searchnu.com Image

Searchnu.com is a kind of website that criminals set up in order to do nothing but display advertisements. Disguised as a legitimate search engine, carrying out a search on Searchnu.com will return nothing but advertisements for malicious websites and shady products. Basically, Searchnu.com is like a malicious phone directory in which any number you call leads you to a criminal attempting to rob you of your money. Now, with real search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing at hand, why would someone in his/her right mind want to use Searchnu.com for their online searches? No one, in fact. However, Searchnu.com gets plenty of web traffic. So, how does Searchnu.com do it? Searchnu.com uses malware in order to force computer users to visit Searchnu.com repeatedly. This is why any redirects to Searchnu.com should be treated as a definite sign that your machine has become infected with spyware.

Even if your security software claims that nothing is wrong, having your web browser forcing you, against your will, to visit a particular website repeatedly (or even just once) is not a normal occurrence. Because of this, any contact with Searchnu.com should be followed with a full, thorough malware scan of your computer system. Repeated redirects to this fake search engine or to various websites similar to Searchnu.com indicate that your computer's security has become compromised.

Malware Associated with Searchnu.com Redirects

Searchnu.com is just one of hundreds of fake search engines that are associated with a Trojan infection commonly known as the Google Redirect Virus. This Trojan is a component of various malicious rootkits, including ZeroAccess and some adware-oriented variants of TDSS.

In fact, the Google Redirect Virus will change the results on a Google, Bing or Yahoo search so that they link to Searchnu.com when they are clicked. Unskilled computer users may not see it as an abnormal event. This is why browser hijackers carry out this kind of 'soft hijacking' instead of locking you out of all websites except Searchnu.com. In this way, inexperienced computer users that are much more likely to attempt a search on Searchnu.com, become exposed to additional malware and at the same time generate advertisement revenue for the criminals behind Searchnu.com.