Paid.outbrain.com Virus

Browser Hijacker
by Violet George
December 21, 2022

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Paid.outbrain.com

Paid.outbrain.com is a form of unwanted software/malware known as a browser hijacker that forces the users’ browsers to suddenly open different sites that the hijacker is programmed to promote. Paid.outbrain.com can be a threat because some of the sites it promotes may contain viruses.

Paid.outbrain.com 1

If there are ads in your browser every time you open the program and if you are constantly getting bombarded with obstructive page redirects and random banners, pop-ups and blinking messages and also if all of a sudden the search engine of your browser and/or its homepage have been replaced by new ones, then you most likely have a browser hijacker on your hands.

Browser hijackers are mostly harmless pieces of software that belong to the category of PUP/PUA (potentially unwanted programs/ applications). If you have a hijacker on your PC, it should by now be obvious why this type of software is regarded as potentially unwanted. You can have a hijacker on any browser – Edge, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, as well as on other less popular browsing programs.

SUMMARY:

Name Paid.outbrain.com
Type Browser Hijacker
Danger LevelMedium (nowhere near threats like Ransomware, but still a security risk)
Symptoms The adverts, the pop-ups, the page redirects and the changes to the browser are the most typical symptoms of a hijacker invasion.
Distribution MethodMost such apps get distributed through spam messages and software installation bundles.
Detection Tool

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Please follow all the steps below in order to remove Paid.outbrain.com!

How to remove Paid.outbrain.com

  1. First, click the Start Menu on your Windows PC.
  2. Type Programs and Settings in the Start Menu, click the first item, and find Paid.outbrain.com in the programs list that would show up.
  3. Select Paid.outbrain.com from the list and click on Uninstall.
  4. Follow the steps in the removal wizard.

What we suggest you do first is, check the list of programs that are presently installed on the infected device and uninstall any rogue software that you find there:

  • From the Start Menu, navigate to Control Panel ->>> Programs and Features ->>> Uninstall a Program.
  • Next, carefully search for unfamiliar programs or programs that have been installed recently and could be related to Paid.outbrain.com.
  • If you find any of the programs suspicious then uninstall them if they turn out to be linked to Paid.outbrain.com.
  • If a notification appears on your screen when you try to uninstall a specific questionable program prompting you to just alter it or repair it, make sure you choose NO and complete the steps from the removal wizard.

Remove Paid.outbrain.com from Chrome

  1. Click on the three dots in the right upper corner
  2. Go to more tools
  3. Now select extensions
  4. Remove the Paid.outbrain.com extension
  • Once you open Chrome, click on the three-dots icon to open the browser’s menu, go to More Tools/ More Options, and then to Extensions.
  • Again, find the items on that page that could be linked to Paid.outbrain.com and/or that might be causing problems in the browser and delete them.
  • Afterwards, go to this folder: Computer > C: > Users > *Your User Account* > App Data > Local > Google > Chrome > User Data. In there, you will find a folder named Default – you should change its name to Backup Default and restart the PC.
  • Note that the App Data folder is normally hidden so you’d have to first make the hidden files and folders on your PC visible before you can access it.

How to get rid of Paid.outbrain.com on FF/Edge/etc.

  1. Open the browser and select the menu icon.
  2. From the menu, click on the Add-ons button.
  3. Look for the Paid.outbrain.com extension
  4. Get rid of Paid.outbrain.com by removing it from extensions

If using Firefox:

  • Open Firefox
  • Select the three parallel lines menu and go to Add-ons.
  • Find the unwanted add-on and delete it from the browser – if there is more than one unwanted extension, remove all of them.
  • Go to the browser menu again, select Options, and then click on Home from the sidebar to the left.
  • Check the current addresses for the browser’s homepage and new-tab page and change them if they are currently set to address(es) you don’t know or trust.

If using MS Edge/IE:

  • Start Edge
  • Select the browser menu and go to Extensions.
  • Find and uninstall any Edge extensions that look undesirable and unwanted.
  • Select Settings from the browser menu and click on Appearance.
  • Check the new-tab page address of the browser and if it has been modified by “Paid.outbrain.com” or another unwanted app, change it to an address that you’d want to be the browser’s new-tab page.

How to Delete Paid.outbrain.com

  1. Open task manager
  2. Look for the Paid.outbrain.com process
  3. Select it and click on End task
  4. Open the file location to delete Paid.outbrain.com
  • Access the Task Manager by pressing together the Ctrl + Alt + Del keys and then selecting Task Manager.
  • Open Processes and there try to find a process with the name of the unwanted software. If you find it, select it with the right button of the mouse and click on the Open File Location option.
  • If you don’t see a “Paid.outbrain.com” process in the Task Manager, look for another suspicious process with an unusual name. It is likely that the unwanted process would be using lots of RAM and CPU so pay attention to the number of resources each process is using.
  • Tip: If you think you have singled out the unwanted process but are not sure, it’s always a good idea to search for information about it on the Internet – this should give you a general idea if the process is a legitimate one from a regular program or from your OS or if it is indeed likely linked to the adware.
  • If you find another suspicious process, open its File Location too.
  • Once in the File Location folder for the suspicious process, start testing all of the files that are stored there by dragging them to our free online scanner available below.
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    • If the scanner finds malware in any of the files, return to the Processes tab in the Task Manager, select the suspected process, and then select the End Process option to quit it.
    • Go back to the folder where the files of that process are located and delete all of the files that you are allowed to delete. If all files get deleted normally, exit the folder and delete that folder too. If one or more of the files showed an error message when you tried to delete them, leave them for now and return to try to delete them again once you’ve completed the rest of the guide.

    How to Uninstall Paid.outbrain.com

    1. Click on the home button
    2. Search for Startup Apps
    3. Look for Paid.outbrain.com in there
    4. Uninstall Paid.outbrain.com from Startup Apps by turning it off
    • Now you need to carefully search for and uninstall any Paid.outbrain.com-related entries from the Registry. The easiest way to do this is to open the Registry Editor app (type Regedit in the windows search field and press Enter) and then open a Find dialog (CTRL+F key combination) where you have to type the name of the threat. 
    • Perform a search by clicking on the Find Next button and delete any detected results. Do this as many times as needed until no more results are found. 
    • After that, to ensure that there are no remaining entries lined to Paid.outbrain.com in the Registry, go manually to the following directories and delete them:
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Random Directory. 
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run/Random
    • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Main/Random

    Is Paid.outbrain.com dangerous?

    It is typical for the majority of users to assume that their machine has fallen victim of some nasty piece of malware like a Trojan horse infection or a cryptovirus of the ransomware category once they start seeing the changes in their browser and the constant barrage of ads, banners and page redirects. However, the good news here is that the hijacker apps are rarely anything more than irritating pieces of software that seek to make money through paid ads. The idea is that the users with a hijacker on their PC would eventually click on some of the ads and would thus earn Pay-Per-Click revenue for the hijacker developers. Of course, you won’t benefit from that in any way and it is therefore better to simply uninstall the hijacker. Below, you can learn how to remove Paid.outbrain.com and Privatesearches.org from your PC.


    What you should know about Paid.outbrain.com?


    It is definitely much more problematic if your PC gets infected by ransomware, spyware, a Trojan horse or a rootkits malware program compared to getting a hijacker installed on your computer. That being said, hijackers are still not to be regarded as perfectly safe and reliable pieces of software. Some of them might even come with some helpful functions to at least partially make up for the intrusiveness of the ads but you have to remember that the fact that random advertisements are streamed to your browser screen is, in and of itself, a potential security risk. You just can’t know what is waiting for you on the other side of the next hijacker-generated commercial and, also, there is usually not much control over the safety of these advertisements.
    This is why the wise thing to do here is to use our Paid.outbrain.com removal guide or the antimalware program inside it and through them ensure that the hijacker is eliminated. Also, in the future, make sure that you only download new software from dependable and trusted sources and even then install it through the advanced options so as to verify there’s nothing added to the installer that might be unwanted.


    About the author

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    Violet George

    Violet is an active writer with a passion for all things cyber security. She enjoys helping victims of computer virus infections remove them and successfully deal with the aftermath of the attacks. But most importantly, Violet makes it her priority to spend time educating people on privacy issues and maintaining the safety of their computers. It is her firm belief that by spreading this information, she can empower web users to effectively protect their personal data and their devices from hackers and cybercriminals.

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