I wrote this article to help you remove Secure Surf. This Secure Surf removal guide works for Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Secure Surf is a search platform, directed at French speakers. The website is located at the domain address secure-surf.com. Secure Surf provides extended search options, including filters for images, videos, and news. If you have decided to try out the website, you should reconsider. Our job as cyber security researchers is to warn computer users about potential dangers. There are a number of threats around the Secure Surf platform. The website is associated to a browser hijacker. The shady program uses the domain as a gateway to the browser. It can affect most browsing clients, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. The hijacker performs malicious tasks which expose both the machine and its owner to security threats.

The first task on the agenda of the hijacker is to switch the homepage and default search provider to secure-surf.com. The insidious program makes these changes permanent. It will render your settings every time you try to revert back to your original preferences. You should by no means settle for the website the hijacker is trying to force you to use. Doing searches through the Secure Surf platform returns supported results. The owners of the hijacker get paid to sponsor the platforms of third party advertisers. They do not bother to scan the websites they promote. The supported results are added amid the regular. There is no way to distinguish between them. Doing a basic keyword web search becomes dangerous when the hijacker is present in the system.

There are a couple of ways to contact the hijacker behind Secure Surf. Software bundles are usually responsible for the clandestine program making its way into people’s machines. The shady tool can travel in a merged executable with another application. Freeware, shareware, and pirated versions of paid programs can be used to transfer the Secure Surf hijacker. The unwanted tool will be added as a bonus. You can unmark it or terminate the installation altogether. Our advice is to read the terms and conditions of your selected programs during the installation process. It is best to avoid unconfirmed software.

The other way for the Secure Surf hijacker to gain access to your computer is through a spam email. The secluded tool can be transferred to your machine through an attachment. The host can be a text document, an image, an archive, or a zipped folder. The sender behind the misleading letter will ask you to open the attachment and view its contents right away. He will state that the file is a piece of documentation on an urgent matter. Note that opening the file may suffice to give the rogue tool the green light. Before tending to a file from an electronic message, you need to make sure it is reliable. Check the sender’s contacts.

The presence of the Secure Surf hijacker is easy to notice for a number of reasons. Apart from your web browser being modified, your system will also send out signals in a way. Your device will slow down to a crawl. The clandestine program uses up a lot of CPU which makes the computer sluggish and unable to complete large data requests. A constant reminder that something is wrong will be the flow of ads. The Secure Surf hijacker conducts aggressive advertising campaigns. It displays a great number of pop-up and pop-under windows all the time. The ads will come in different formats, like banners, in-text links, coupon boxes, interstitial, floating, transitional, inline, and contextual ads. The windows contain embedded links to third party websites. Their security is not confirmed. While the proposed offers may be good, security should be your prime concern. It is best to discard the ads.

The Secure Surf hijacker carries out another task which poses a threat to users’ personal security. It monitors their surfing sessions and collects the information they enter into their browser. The shady program can access your history, keystrokes, tracking cookies, IP address, geographic location, area code, email, telephone number, and the details you store into your online accounts. If you use online financial services, you can have your deposits withdrawn. The entity behind the Secure Surf website has opted out of responsibility for all security-related issues. The registrant behind the domain is a company from Tangier, Morocco called Development Media 73. The entity does not cover sustained liabilities or warranties.

Secure Surf Removal

Before starting the real removal process, you must reboot in Safe Mode. If you know how to do this, skip the instructions below and proceed to Step 2. If you do not know how to do it, here is how to reboot in Safe mode:

For Windows 98, XP, Millenium and 7:
Reboot your computer. When the first screen of information appears, start repeatedly pressing F8 key. Then choose Safe Mode With Networking from the options.

For Windows 8/8.1
Click the Start button, next click Control Panel —> System and Security —> Administrative Tools —> System Configuration.‌

Check the Safe Boot option and click OK. Click Restart when asked.
For Windows 10
Open the Start menu and click or tap on the Power button.

While keeping the Shift key pressed, click or tap on Restart.

Please, follow the steps precisely to remove Secure Surf from the browser:

Remove From Mozilla Firefox:

Open Firefox, click on top-right corner , click Add-ons, hit Extensions next.

Look for suspicious or unknown extensions, remove them all.

Remove From Chrome:

Open Chrome, click chrome menu icon at the top-right corner —>More Tools —> Extensions. There, identify the malware and select chrome-trash-icon(Remove).

Remove From Internet Explorer:
Open IE, then click IE gear icon on the top-right corner —> Manage Add-ons.

Find the malicious add-on. Remove it by pressing Disable.

Right click on the browser’s shortcut, then click Properties. Remove everything after the .exe” in the Target box.

Open Control Panel by holding the Win Key and R together. Write appwiz.cpl in the field, then click OK.

Here, find any program you had no intention to install and uninstall it.

Run the Task Manager by right clicking on the Taskbar and choosing Start Task Manager.

Look carefully at the file names and descriptions of the running processes. If you find any suspicious one, search on Google for its name, or contact me directly to identify it. If you find a malware process, right-click on it and choose End task.

Open MS Config by holding the Win Key and R together. Type msconfig and hit Enter.

Go in the Startup tab and Uncheck entries that have “Unknown” as Manufacturer.

Still can not remove Secure Surf from your browser? Please, leave a comment below, describing what steps you performed. I will answer promptly.