What is “ACTION CENTER” pop up all about?
The “ACTION CENTER” popup is nothing but a scam done by visiting an infected website or through a widespread malicious program called Adware. This would make you believe that all your credentials are at risk and if an action is not taken immediately, all your details will be taken away from the computer.
Technically, these adware’s use complicated coding to by-pass the usual firewall of the computer they are designed to insert such fake pop-ups on the victim's computer which helps the hackers to make some money by fooling people.
Adware is not a virus, but on the other hand, it is a widespread malicious program that generates many such pop-ups and the most shocking fact about an adware program is that it would weaken the firewall of your computer internally and would make way for other malicious programs.
An Adware is particularly designed to make money. Once an Adware program has infected a computer, it would inject small codes into the pages which you visit very often like your banking account or any social media.
This code will create numerous advertisement banners some may include fake security warnings like “ACTION CENTER” or insert a sponsored ad on the pages you are viewing.
When your computer is infected with an adware, all your web browsers like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and MS Edge may redirect you to fake security warnings or to sponsored advertisement banners.
Also Read: How To Remove yandex.ru Redirect Virus From Browser?
Is adware harmful, can it corrupt your system data?
Although an adware might not damage any files or Windows system, it will certainly annoy you with the frequent notification or ad banner. Even though Adware would not harm any file but always remember it is a malicious program and the longer a malicious program stays on a computer, the more are the chances of getting infected with other malware's which include spyware, ransomware, and other malicious programs.
How does an Adware spread?
- Initially, adware installs into a computer via browser hijackers.
- When computers are impacted by a browser hijacker it would make way for other malware and one of the very common malware these days is Adware.
- Malware authors have developed such tools which can diagnose IP address and distinguish computers based on their security levels and infect them accordingly. In this case, the computers running on the legacy products or outdated security end up being the favorite targets of hackers.
- It can contaminate the PC through restricted websites or through infected websites. In this case, having a good security will help the user to block such websites.
- Adware can get into a computer through portable devices like USB stick, portable hard drives or through any other transferable media.
- Hackers can also infect a computer using freeware programs, this has become the easiest and quickest way of infecting a computer without user’s consent.
Common symptoms of adware include:
- The web browser would more show signs of instability and frequent crashes.
- The default configuration of the web browser is modified i.e. the default home page and the default search engine is changed.
- A victim might see new extensions and add-on toolbar in the top panel of your web browser.
- Whenever victim tries to open anything he is been redirected to some random website which may either display advertisement banners or would give fake security warnings.
- Poor program execution, moderate reaction time as the ads would fly out of the blue.
- Even if the web browsers are not active the infected computer would display ads which would result in system crashes from time to time or PC would boot up for unknown reasons.
- Security program and the inbuilt firewall is crippled.
- New icons are added to desktop pretending to be for some kind of security.
- Keep your Windows Updated: To avoid such infections, we recommend that you should always keep your system updated through automatic windows update. By doing this you can keep your device free from virus. According to the survey, outdated/older versions of Windows operating system are an easy target.
- Third-party installation: Try to avoid freeware download websites as they usually install bundled of software with any installer or stub file.
- Regular Backup: Regular and periodical backup helps you to keep your data safe in case the system is infected by any kind of virus or any other infection. Thus always backup important files regularly on a cloud drive or an external hard drive.
- Always have an Anti-Virus: Precaution is better than cure. We recommend that you install an antivirus like McAfee or a good Malware Removal Tool like Download Free Virus RemovalTool
- Enable your popup blocker: Install a powerful ad- blocker for Chrome, Mozilla, and IE.