WeatherBlink is an extension for google chrome, Mozilla, and internet explorer. It allows users to check out the weather anywhere in the world at any time. This might seem like a convenient feature, however, this toolbar also displays unwanted ads, hijacks your browser home page, collects personal data about your web surfing habits, visits, and clicks.
From the author: Access local weather forecasts, weather radar, allergy, and pollen reports, and worldwide weather news – all in one convenient spot!
This extension configures your New Tab page to WeatherBlink™ to provide these features.
Be prepared with instant weather forecasts. Access FREE and accurate weather forecasts with one click!
About Browser Hijackers
Browser hijack is a very common type of online fraud where your web browser settings are modified to make it do things you do not intend. Browser hijackers can do more than simply modifying home pages. It redirects you to the sponsored internet sites and inserts ads on the internet browser that helps its creator generate ad revenue. A lot of people assume that these kinds of websites are legitimate and harmless but that is not true. Nearly every browser hijacker poses an actual threat to your online safety and it is necessary to classify them under privacy dangers. In a worst-case scenario, your internet browser could be hi-jacked to open up your computer to a host of additional computer infections.
Indications of browser hijack
Below are some symptoms that indicate you’ve been hijacked:
1. the browser’s home page is changed
2. bookmark and the new tab are also modified
3. default online search engine is modified
4. you see unwanted new toolbars added
5. you notice a lot of pop-ups on your computer screen
6. web pages load very slowly and often incomplete
7. you’ve disallowed entry to particular web pages, for example, the website of an antimalware software firm like SafeBytes.
So how exactly does a browser hijacker infect a computer?
A browser hijacker could be installed on your PC when you go to an infected website, click an email attachment, or download something from a file-sharing website. They also come from add-on applications, also referred to as browser helper objects (BHO), browser extensions, or toolbars. Sometimes you may have mistakenly accepted a browser hijacker as part of a software program bundle (usually freeware or shareware). Typical examples of browser hijackers include CoolWebSearch, Conduit, RocketTab, OneWebSearch, Coupon Server, Searchult.com, Snap.do, and Delta Search.
Tips on how to remove browser hijackers
Certain browser hijacking can be easily stopped by discovering and eliminating the corresponding malware application from your control panel. However, certain hijackers are more difficult to find or eliminate as they might get themselves associated with certain crucial system files that enable it to work as a necessary operating-system process. You should think about carrying out manual repairs only if you’re a tech-savvy person because there are possible risks associated with fiddling around with the system registry and HOSTS file.
How One Can Eliminate Malware that is Blocking Websites or Preventing Downloads
Malware could potentially cause several different types of damage to PCs, networks, and data. Certain malware goes to great lengths to prevent you from downloading or installing anything on your PC, especially anti-malware applications. If you’re reading this, you probably have got infected by a virus that prevents you from downloading security software like Safebytes Anti-Malware. There are a few fixes you could try to get around with this issue.
Start Windows in Safe Mode
Safe Mode is actually a unique, basic version of Windows where just essential services are loaded to counteract malware as well as other problematic programs from loading. In the event the malware is blocking access to the internet and affecting your PC, launching it in Safe Mode enables you to download anti-virus and run a diagnostic scan while limiting possible damage. To start the computer into Safe Mode, hit the “F8” key on your keyboard right before the Windows logo screen comes up; Or after normal Windows boot up, run MSCONFIG, check Safe Boot under Boot tab, and click Apply. Once you restart into Safe Mode with Networking, you may download, install, as well as update anti-malware software from there. At this point, you could run the anti-malware scan to eliminate computer viruses and malware without any interference from another application.
Switch over to an alternate browser
Some malware may target vulnerabilities of a specific browser that block the downloading process. The most effective solution to avoid this problem is to pick a browser that is renowned for its security features. Firefox has built-in Phishing and Malware Protection to help keep you secure online.
Install antivirus on a thumb drive
To effectively remove the malware, you have to approach the problem of running an anti-malware software program on the affected computer from a different angle. Adopt these measures to run the anti-virus on the affected computer.
1) Download Safebytes Anti-Malware or Windows Defender Offline onto a virus-free computer system.
2) Plug the USB drive into the clean PC.
3) Double-click the Setup icon of the anti-malware program to run the Installation Wizard.
4) When asked, choose the location of the USB drive as the place in which you would like to store the software files. Follow activation instructions.
5) Unplug the flash drive. You may now utilize this portable anti-virus on the infected computer.
6) Double-click the Safebytes Anti-malware icon on the flash drive to run the program.
7) Press the “Scan Now” button to begin the virus scan.
SafeBytes Anti-Malware: Lightweight Malware Protection for Windows Computer
Do you want to install the best anti-malware software for your computer system? There are plenty of applications available in the market which comes in paid and free versions for Microsoft Windows computers. A few of them are good, some are ok types, while some will damage your computer themselves! You need to be careful not to select the wrong application, particularly if you purchase a paid application. On the list of recommended software programs is SafeBytes AntiMalware. SafeBytes has a very good track record of top-quality service, and customers seem to be very happy with it.
SafeBytes can be described as a powerful, real-time anti-spyware application that is made to assist the common computer end user in safeguarding their PC from malicious internet threats. Using its cutting-edge technology, this application can assist you to get rid of multiples types of malware which include computer viruses, PUPs, trojans, worms, ransomware, adware, and browser hijackers.
SafeBytes has a variety of features that can help you protect your PC from malware attacks and damage. Below are a few of the great ones:
Antimalware Protection: With a critically acclaimed anti-malware engine, SafeBytes gives multi-layered protection which is intended to find and eliminate viruses and malware that are concealed deep in your computer’s operating system.
Real-time Threat Response: SafeBytes provides round-the-clock protection for your PC restricting malware intrusions in real-time. It’ll regularly monitor your laptop or computer for hacker activity and also gives users sophisticated firewall protection.
Quick Multi-threaded Scanning: SafeBytes’s high-speed malware scanning engine lessens scan times and extends the life of the battery. At the same time, it’ll effectively detect and get rid of infected computer files or any internet threat.
Internet Security: Safebytes allots all sites a unique safety score that helps you to get an idea of whether the website you’re just about to visit is safe to browse or known to be a phishing site.
Low CPU/Memory Usage: SafeBytes is well known for its minimal influence on computer resources and great detection rate of numerous threats. It works quietly and efficiently in the background so you are free to utilize your computer or laptop at full power all the time.
24/7 Customer Support: You will get 24/7 technical support to promptly resolve any problem with your security tool.
Technical Details and Manual Removal (Advanced Users)
To remove WeatherBlink manually, go to the Add or Remove programs list in the Control Panel and select the program you want to get rid of. For internet browser plug-ins, go to your browser’s Addon/Extension manager and select the plug-in you want to remove or disable. You will probably also want to reset your internet browser.
Finally, examine your hard drive for all of the following and clean your registry manually to remove leftover application entries after uninstallation. Please remember that only experienced users should try to manually edit the registry because incorrect file deletion results in a major problem or perhaps a PC crash. Furthermore, certain malware is capable of replicating or preventing deletion.
Carrying out this malware-removal process in Safe Mode is recommended.
So far we probably all know what are good new and exciting features that W11 is bringing to the table, let’s talk now about features that will be removed and are not there but we had them in W10
The true cause is that there is no working Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) routes into Facebook's sites. BGP is the standardized exterior gateway protocol used to exchange routing and reachability information between the internet top-level autonomous systems (AS). Most people, indeed most network administrators, never need to deal with BGP.
Cloudflare VP Dane Knecht was the first to report the underlying BGP problem. This meant, as Kevin Beaumont, former Microsoft's Head of Security Operations Centre, tweeted,
"By not having BGP announcements for your DNS name servers, DNS falls apart = nobody can find you on the internet. Same with WhatsApp btw. Facebook has basically de-platformed themselves from their own platform."
Many people are very annoyed by this and with the fact that they cannot use their social media platforms but it seems that Facebook employees are in even bigger annoyance as it was reported that Facebook employees can't enter their buildings because their "smart" badges and doors were also disabled by this network failure. If true, Facebook's people literally can't enter the building to fix things.
Reddit user u/ramenporn, who claimed to be a Facebook employee working on bringing the social network back from the dead, reported, before he deleted his account and his messages:
"DNS for FB services has been affected and this is likely a symptom of the actual issue, and that's that BGP peering with Facebook peering routers has gone down, very likely due to a configuration change that went into effect shortly before the outages happened (started roughly 1540 UTC). There are people now trying to gain access to the peering routers to implement fixes, but the people with physical access is separate from the people with knowledge of how to actually authenticate to the systems and people who know what to actually do, so there is now a logistical challenge with getting all that knowledge unified. Part of this is also due to lower staffing in data centers due to pandemic measures."
Ramenporn also stated that it wasn't an attack, but a mistaken configuration change made via a web interface.
Both BGP and DNS are down, the "connection to the outside world is down, remote access to those tools don't exist anymore, so the emergency procedure is to gain physical access to the peering routers and do all the configuration locally."
Technicians on site don't know how to do that and senior network administrators aren't on site.
It seems that it will all be down for a couple of more hours before the issue is resolved. 
Tracked as CVE-2021-34484, the “zero-day” flaw enables hackers to breach all versions of Windows (including Windows 10, Windows 11, and Windows Server 2022) and take control of your computer.
Microsoft mistakenly thought it had patched the vulnerability (which was first found in August) when it was publicly disclosed in October. But the fix itself was found to be flawed, something the company admitted, and this drew even more attention to the vulnerability. Microsoft subsequently promised to “take appropriate action to keep customers protected” but two weeks later, a new fix has still not arrived.
Luckily the third-party security specialist 0patch has beaten Microsoft to the punch with a ‘micropatch that it has now made available for all Windows users “Micropatches for this vulnerability will be free until Microsoft has issued an official fix," 0patch confirmed.
You will need to register for a 0patch account and install its download agent before the fix can be applied, but with 0patch fast becoming a go-to destination for hot fixes which beat software companies to the punch this is a no brainer. Hopes will be high that Microsoft can release an effective patch sooner rather than later but, until then, all Windows users must act now if they want to be safe.
Download 0patch here:
This is a very interesting decision by Microsoft and I fully support it, this time users will be able to pay less and to choose only applications that they need instead of paying for the whole package and not using it. 