Browser hijacking Some adware uses Sear4m.xyz to cause a user to click on Sear4m.xyz ads. Once Sear4m.xyz is installed, it changes the default DNS settings of browsers like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and Internet explorer, and often redirect to various fake websites which are often laiden with viruses. Searchassist is a browser hijacker which piggybacks on other downloads from untrusted websites. It will change the new tab homepage to searchassist.net and opens searchassist on browser start-up. It is stubborn, and if not uninstalled, will repeatedly change the browser tabs and homepage settings. It works with Firefox, Safari, Chrome, and Internet Explorer, though
Pwn2Own $140,000 in prize money. Internet Explorer 11 on Windows 8.1 was successfully exploited by Sebastian Apelt and Andreas Schmidt for a prize of $100,000. Mozilla Firefox was exploited by Jüri Aedla, Mariusz Młyński, and George Hotz each independently, winning $50,000 each. An anonymous participant exploited Google Chrome; however, upon review contest judges declared this a partial win due to one portion of the presentation’s collision with a vulnerability exploited earlier in the week in the Pwnium competition. In 2015, every single prize available was claimed. In 2016, Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Safari were all hacked. Firefox did not even participate