AthenaSearch

No matter what AthenaSearch may claim to have as useful features, the application itself is nothing more than adware designed to deliver unwanted advertisements to the systems it managed to infiltrate. applications such as AthenaSearch are rarely installed by users willingly. In fact, most times the user doesn't even realize that such an application is being installed due to the employed dubious distribution tactics. AthenaSearch, for example, has been observed to propagate itself under the guise of an Adobe Flash Player update.

Once deployed the application will begin to conduct an intrusive ad campaign. Various banners, pop-ups, surveys, and other advertising materials could start to overlay the legitimate content viewed by the user. Furthermore, clicking on the advertisements could lead to increased security risks in the form of suspicious third-party websites. Once redirected to them, the user could be subjected to phishing schemes, domains attempting to drop additional Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs), or even malware threats packaged to appear as urgent software updates.

In addition to its adware functionality, AthenaSearch also will establish control over specific browser settings - mainly the homepage, new tab page and the default search engine. The goal is to set all three of them to open a promoted address, most likely that of a fake search engine.

Users are strongly encouraged to remove AthenaSearch from their devices as soon as possible. applications of this type are known to track the activities of the user by harvesting the browsing and search histories, the device's IP address, geolocation and other private data.