Searchswitch.com

Searchswitch.com Image

SearchSwitch.com is a clone of fake search engines such as ResultDNS and ScanQuery. This family of malicious search engines is characterized because of its association with dangerous browser-hijacking Trojans. By forcing you to visit SearchSwitch.com repeatedly, criminals can profit from illegally-obtained advertising revenue and from pay-per-click schemes. ESG security researchers consider that the SearchSwitch.com website poses a severe danger to your computer system's security. While this website is not particularly dangerous in itself, the malware that is associated with SearchSwitch.com can wreak havoc on an infected computer system. With its innocuous white and green layout, SearchSwitch.com gives the impression of being a harmless search engine website. However, this malicious web page acts as an intermediary between a computer system infected with a browser hijacker and a large number of malicious websites containing unsafe content. Because of this, if your computer system is forcing you to visit SearchSwitch.com repeatedly, ESG malware analysts strongly recommend scanning your hard drives for possible malware infections and removing them with a legitimate, fully-updated anti-malware application. It is also important to make sure that SearchSwitch.com is blocked to avoid possible accidental visits to this website in the future.
 

Symptoms of Malware Associated with SearchSwitch.com

As was mentioned previously, the main hazard of the SearchSwitch.com website lies in its dangerous malware associations. There are two main ways in which SearchSwitch.com is linked to extremely dangerous malware threats:

1. Redirects to the SearchSwitch.com website are usually the result of a browser hijacker. These kinds of malware infections are designed to force an Internet browser to perform certain actions, such as visiting the SearchSwitch.com website or changing the browser's homepage to SearchSwitch.com. Browser hijackers can take the form of toolbars or add-ons for your Internet browser. More often, browser hijackers associated with SearchSwitch.com take the form of a dangerous Trojan infection. The most common browser hijacker linked to the SearchSwitch.com website is the Google Redirect Virus, a common component of extremely dangerous rootkits such as the TDSS rootkit and the ZeroAccess rootkit.
2. SearchSwitch.com is also designed to lead its visitors to websites associated with other, malicious content. Performing a search on this fake search engine will return no legitimate results. Rather, SearchSwitch.com will list websites that have paid for SearchSwitch.com's services. These kinds of websites will often promote fake security applications, which are in reality Trojans designed to take your computer hostage or be actively involved in various online scams.