News1free.org

News1free.org is a questionable news and search website that mainly targets Russian-speaking countries. Although it is a relatively new search page that emerged at the beginning of May, 2017, we cannot say it is really new in the sense that it is indeed the clone of about two dozen previous malware infections, including 2infoblog.com/news/, 3bloginfo.com/news/, and browser-net.net/news/. These all belong to the category of browser hijackers because they can modify your browser settings to come up as your home page and new tab page. This infection can sneak onto your computer without your knowledge and expose you to potentially harmful web content. We advise you to remove News1free.org the moment you find it in your browsers to nip it in the bud and stop the possibility of letting further malware infections onto your computer.

Although our research indicates that this Russian search page mostly targets Russian speakers, it is still possible that you can get infected with it anywhere in the world. This browser hijacker can be distributed along with potentially unwanted programs as an option to add it to your browsers but it can also be packed in bundles that may contain other malware infections as well, including adware programs, Trojans, backdoors, and, of course, browser hijackers. If you do not want to infect your computer with similar threats, you should become a more cautious surfer because this can actually be avoided. Of course, you can also decide to protect your PC by installing a decent anti-malware program and just kick back and relax while browsing the web without getting too paranoid about malicious websites and unreliable third-party ads.

But, if your computer is not protected, you really need to be careful what kind of websites you land on and where you click. There are several types of websites that are typically risky to visit. These are generally torrent, freeware, online gambling, gaming, and porn-related pages of the suspicious kind. It is one thing that you should never download free programs from shady file-sharing websites because you would simply download a malicious bundle instead, but these pages also host a number of unsafe third-party ads and content that you would not even think belong to third parties as they are disguised (e.g., fake notifications and fake buttons). One click is enough on the wrong ad or link to drop a package of “nasties” onto your system. Then, it will not be sufficient for you to delete News1free.org from your computer because there could be even bigger threats hiding on your PC. Therefore, we recommend that you find a reliable online malware scanner – you can find one for free, you do not need to buy one just yet – and scan your computer to find all potentially risky applications. This will not free your system up just like that, you will have to eliminate them all either manually or using security software.

This Russian browser hijacker is not the first from its creators, as we have already mentioned, there are at least two dozens of identical infections in this family. This hijacker provides you with a search box and a number of news article headlines to choose from. We have found that this infection may redirect you to potentially dangerous websites, such as pornography-related pages, or offer you software downloads and updates as well, which can also end with infecting your system with additional malware threats. We do not advise you to click on any of the news articles either because you could be exposed to questionable third-party ads and the linked pages might also contain malicious code.

The same related to the search engine itself, which forwards all your queries to a probably modified Google search results page that may contain questionable third-party ads and other sponsored content. Clicking on such contents could drop additional infections or you could be redirected to malicious websites. If you do not want to become an online scam victim and let cyber criminals steal your hard-earned money from your bank accounts, we suggest that you remove News1free.org even if this may not be an everyday case.

When you want to eliminate this browser hijacker, first you need to check the system tasks because it may set up scheduled tasks to open your default browser every now and then. Once you delete all suspicious tasks, it is time to reset your browsers. Although this can remove all your preferences and newly installed extensions, at the same time, it may also eliminate other browser-related threats as well. Please follow our instructions below if you are ready to move on and put an end to this infection. Hopefully, you have realized that your PC needs proper protection not to flood it with similar or even worse malware threats. If so, we advise you to download and install a trustworthy anti-malware application. You can find a lot of security tools on the web, such as SpyHunter, that can automatically protect your system against any possible malware hits. But be careful when choosing your preferred tool because the net is also filled with rogue and fake security programs.

Remove suspicious scheduled tasks related to News1free.org

1. Press Win+E.
2. Open %WINDIR%\Tasks and %WINDIR%\System32\Tasks directories to find tasks that may be related to this hijacker.
3. Delete all suspicious tasks.
4. Empty your Recycle bin.

Reset your browsers

Mozilla Firefox

1. Press Alt+H to open the Help menu.
2. Choose Troubleshooting Information.
3. Press Refresh Firefox.
4. In the pop-up, click Refresh Firefox again.

Google Chrome

1. Press Alt+F to open the menu.
2. Select Settings and scroll down the page.
3. Select Show advanced settings.
4. Scroll down again and press Reset Settings.
5. Click Reset in the pop-up.

Internet Explorer

1. Press Alt+T to open the Tools menu.
2. Navigate to Internet Options.
3. Select the Advanced tab and pick Reset.
4. Mark Delete personal settings.
5. Click Reset and press Close.