Security-protect.org Ads Removal Guide — How to Fix It?

Written by Wilbur Woodham
Security-protect.org pop-up notices may appear unexpectedly, covering the content of the website you checked or opening your web browser when you do not desire it to be opened.

Clicking the Security-protect.org advertisement may trigger the injection of different malware or unwanted programs. In this guide, you will see the guideline of Security-protect.org popups removal in several manners, and also examining your computer for extra malware presence.

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What are Security-protect.org pop-ups?

Quick reference

Some of my favorite websites for ads include Amazon.com, BestBuy.com, Coupons.com, Vudu.com and Zebra. As far as I know there is no official data on that (they are probably only going into a very rudimentary statistical analysis, which does not include the ‘likes’ and ‘likes/loses’), but the information here about any kind of advertising is absolutely great information. It is a very great way to spend time with your visitors and if you go by the number of people you will come to, your user base will be almost huge.

Security-protect.org popups are a result of adware activity. Adware is a sort of malware that shows you the pay-per-view of pay-per-click ads, which produces a large volume of income for adware representatives. These promotions might contain explicit composition, or have a link to harmful content/website, due to the fact that adware maintainers have no reason to examine the goodness of the material they are going to show – their single target is cash.

Security-protect.org push notification

Security-protect.org push notification.

Pop-up advertising itself is an excellent, low-priced and very successful marketing instrument1. It enables the vendor to attach the customers’ attention to their website, as well as the customers to get the dynamic updates on the goods they intend to purchase. When the consumer will get a pop-up alert that the TV set he desires to buy is offered at the online store he/she visited earlier with a 15% discount, one will surely use this chance and get it. Considering the very low cost for the popups and their targeting, such a promotion and marketing tool is a favorite thing amongst the marketing departments of big online stores.

Nonetheless, such a profitable system could not be missed by malware creators. Potential to demonstrate the popup advertisements by force to the targets of malware invasion is an ideal basis for evil-minded tricks with the popup ads. And Security-protect.org advertisements is just one of hundreds that are “employed” in this scheme.

Here is a short summary for the Security-protect.org site
Site Security-protect.org
Hosting AS13335 Cloudflare, Inc.
United States, San Francisco
Infection Type Adware, Push notifications, Unwanted Ads, Pop-up Ads
IP Address 172.67.74.79
Symptoms Annoying pop-up ads in the right corner.
Similar behavior Beastclick, Menepuh, Bruklo
Fix Tool
To remove possible virus infections, try to scan your PC

How have I got the Security-protect.org virus?

There are a huge amount of ways of becoming infected by the adware that create the Security-protect.org popups storm. A lion’s part of this malware cases is after the freeware or cracked programs, that are distributed on the peering networks. Freeware may likewise be downloaded from the main web page, and the adware is offered as a legal bundled program.

There is no need to blame yourself. A lot of people oftentimes make use of the dubious programs from untrusted providers: abandonware, a wide range of apps that are free of cost, or perhaps hacked programs. Every one of these types of software are risky, due to the fact that it is extremely simple to build in a Security-protect.org malware under the guise of part of the license hacking script, or as a part of the self-made algoritm within the Windows optimization tool.

Security-protect.org popup virus can additionally be hidden in the promotion somewhere on the odd site. Such websites are typically full of bright and blinking ads, and their proprietors generally approve any kind of promotions to be placed on their web page. For this reason, clicking such banners is a risky thing: only the ad provider knows what will happen when you press this ad. Besides some “light” viruses, like adware or undesirable programs, you can additionally get something far more threatening, like ransomware or coin miner; the big share of coin miners circulation is exactly after the malicious promotions.

People dislike popups

The statistic shows that people dislike popup advertising more than other types of promotions

Potentially unwanted applications, like Security-protect.org popup virus can provoke a wide range of problems on your PC. Distracting is not the single problem – pop-ups may show you the promotions, where you are offered to get one more strange application, or “a amazing security tool”. Scareware is usually spread with the last slogun. Potentially undesirable applications, in turn, may have spyware functionality. And it is very hard to distinguish the undesirable app from a good one, if you don’t know the exact names. Besides the PUPs and dubious antiviruses, popup-related advertisements are also exploited as a spreading method by different trojan viruses, for example – coin miners. The consequences of activity of such malware is 100% unwanted, and can cost you hundreds of dollars. And even if you are not clicking these ads, they can be clicked by whoever who also uses your PC – parents, children, spouse, etc. So the situation may become much more serious, and it will be much harder to solve it without data and money loss. It is recommended to get rid of the viruses with antivirus programs as soon as possible.

How can I get rid of Security-protect.org pop-up advertisements?

The manual of Security-protect.org adware clearing includes 2 sections. Initially, we need to remove the malware, and then repair the consequences of its activity. The removal task is quite easy, since it may be performed even with using Microsoft Defender – security software that is present on all personal computers with Windows 8/10. Nonetheless, as a result of its huge resources usage, as well as some errors that can be critical for some types of individuals, Defender is oftentimes disabled by the users, so its use is probably impossible. Moreover, a variety of trojan viruses have the ability to disable the embedded antivirus. It is far better to use the separated program that will not have such exposures.

I would certainly advise you to use Gridinsoft Anti-Malware2 – a well-proven anti-malware device that will undoubtedly eliminate the viruses from your computer and also make an impenetrable cover with a Proactive protection function. But let’s take care of Security-protect.org adware initially.

Removing Security-protect.org popup virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

  • Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. After the installation, you will be offered to perform the Standard Scan. Approve this action.
  • Gridinsoft Anti-Malware during the scan process

  • Standard scan checks the logical disk where the system files are stored, together with the files of programs you have already installed. The scan lasts up to 6 minutes.
  • GridinSoft Anti-Malware scan results

  • When the scan is over, you may choose the action for each detected virus. For all files of Security-protect.org malware the default option is “Delete”. Press “Apply” to finish the malware removal.
  • GridinSoft Anti-Malware - After Cleaning

Now, when the computer is clean of viruses, we can proceed to the browser reset. You can do this step manually, as well as with the use of GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

Reset browser settings to default

Manual method of browser reset

To reset Edge, do the following steps :
  1. Open “Settings and more” tab in upper right corner, then find here “Settings” button. In the appeared menu, choose “Reset settings” option :
  2. Reseting the Edge browser

  3. After picking the Reset Settings option, you will see the following menu, stating about the settings which will be reverted to original :
For Mozilla Firefox, do the next actions :
  1. Open Menu tab (three strips in upper right corner) and click the “Help” button. In the appeared menu choose “troubleshooting information” :
  2. The first step to revert Mozilla Firefox

  3. In the next screen, find the “Refresh Firefox” option :
  4. The second step of Firefox restoration
    After choosing this option, you will see the next message :
    The last step for Firefox
If you use Google Chrome
  1. Open Settings tab, find the “Advanced” button. In the extended tab choose the “Reset and clean up” button :
  2. In the appeared list, click on the “Restore settings to their original defaults” :
  3. Finally, you will see the window, where you can see all the settings which will be reset to default :
Opera can be reset in the next way
  1. Open Settings menu by pressing the gear icon in the toolbar (left side of the browser window), then click “Advanced” option, and choose “Browser” button in the drop-down list. Scroll down, to the bottom of the settings menu. Find there “Restore settings to their original defaults” option :

  2. After clicking the “Restore settings…” button, you will see the window, where all settings, which will be reset, are shown :

When the browsers are reset, you need to ensure that your browser will connect the accurate DNS while connecting to the site you want. Create a text file titled “hosts” on your pc’s desktop, after that open it and fill it with the following content3:

# Copyright (c) 1993-2006 Microsoft Corp.
#
# This is a sample HOSTS file used by Microsoft TCP/IP for Windows.
#
# This file contains the mappings of IP addresses to host names. Each
# entry should be kept on an individual line. The IP address should
# be placed in the first column followed by the corresponding host name.
# The IP address and the host name should be separated by at least one
# space.
#
# Additionally, comments (such as these) may be inserted on individual
# lines or following the machine name denoted by a ‘#’ symbol.
#
# For example:
#
# 102.54.94.97 rhino.acme.com # source server
# 38.25.63.10 x.acme.com # x client host
# localhost name resolution is handle within DNS itself.
# 127.0.0.1 localhost
# ::1 localhost

Find the hosts.txt file in C:/Windows/System32/drivers/etc directory. Rename this file to “hosts.old.txt” (to distinguish it from the new one), and then move the file you created on the desktop to this folder. Remove the hosts.old from this folder. Now you have your hosts file as good as new.

Nonetheless, there is one issue that makes the things much harder to restore, especially without the anti-malware software. The majority of adware variants that are utilized to show you the Security-protect.org pop-up ads are modifying the deep browser setups, disabling an access to the settings tab. So, if you try to change your browser settings after your PC was penetrated by pop-up-related malware, your browser will certainly crash soon. In some cases, you will see no crash, however, large lag spike after pressing the “settings” key. Browser will stop responding for ~ 30 secs, and after that it will be back to the normal, till you try to open settings once more.

Reset your browser settings with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

To reset your browser with GridinSoft Anti-Malware, open the Tools tab, and click the “Reset browser settings” button.

Tools tab in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

You can see the list of the options for each browser. By default, they are set up in the manner which fits the majority of users. Press the “Reset” button (lower right corner). In a minute your browser will be as good as new.

Reset Browser Settings tab in GridinSoft Anti-Malware

The browser reset is recommended to perform through the antivirus tool by GridinSoft, because last is also able to reset the HOSTS file without any additional commands.

How to Remove Security-protect.org Pop-ups?

Name: Security-protect.org

Description: Security-protect.org - a lot of users became a target for the pop-up advertisements. I have a lot of friends who literally bombed me with the questions like “how to remove Security-protect.org push notifications?” or “why do Security-protect.org pop-ups keep appearing on Chrome even after AdBlock installation?”. In this article we will show you how to deal with Security-protect.org pop-ups, which may corrupt your browser’s correct performance, and create a lot of troubles while you are working.

Operating System: Windows

Application Category: Adware

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References

  1. More about pop-up advertisements on Wikipedia.
  2. GridinSoft Anti-Malware overview and also the reasons why I recommend it for malware elimination.
  3. Official Microsoft guide for hosts file reset.

About the author

Wilbur Woodham

I was a technical writer from early in my career, and consider IT Security one of my foundational skills. I’m sharing my experience here, and I hope you find it useful.

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