Pop-ups and other annoyances pt.3

Homepage hijacking What is homepage hijacking? -- Your homepage is overwritten and a different homepage appears in its place. The new homepage is usually of a pornographic nature. -- Homepage hijacking usually occurs when a web page is viewed that has malicious code embedded within it. The browser runs the code and carries out the instructions it is given. This kind of activity can result in anything from a virus infection to having a new favourite being added to the browser. What should I do? -- Fixing the problem can be as easy as changing the homepage back to the original in the browser preferences to something as complex as editing the system registry to reset the homepage. In many cases of homepage hijacking a small program is downloaded that is run every time the PC is restarted, undoing any changes made to the browser homepage to fix the problem whenever a restart occurs. -- Homepage hijacking is a form of spyware. So, make sure you run a virus scan, spyware scan and check your firewall. You should have these running all the time. If you haven't got these installed then we recommend you use PCguard, which is free to Virgin Media customers. -- Another precaution is to make sure you run Windows updates regularly.