Remove Sigonews spam virus from Android/Chrome/Firefox/IE/Safari

Learn how to address the new browser infection targeting mobile devices and computers with aggressive redirects to Sigonews.com and providing no easy opt-out.

1. What is the Sigonews redirect/popup virus?
2. Automated removal of Sigonews virus
3. Restore web browser settings to their original defaults

What is the Sigonews redirect/popup virus?

The duality of the Sigonews service becomes evident once you look slightly further than the information showcased on its website. On the one hand, it seems to be a run-of-the-mill “daily brand story” resource keeping the visitors tuned for news from well-known companies representing various industries, including consumer electronics, automotive, and entertainment. On the other, a stream of negative feedback about Sigonews has been recently heating up discussions that question its legitimacy and the innocuous motivations of its authors. The dark facet is all about numerous instances of browser interference resulting in redirects to Sigonews.com website. This tampering mainly occurs on Android smartphones and tablets, but it can affect PCs alike. The adverse activity stems from a cross-browser infection that reorganizes a victim’s web surfing preferences without asking for permission.

At first sight, an attack like this doesn’t appear to make a whole lot of sense. It’s hard to fathom the incentives that may lure someone into rerouting people’s Internet traffic to a harmless site.

However, the catch is hiding beneath the tip of the iceberg. Every time the redirect takes place, the navigation path encompasses a number of URLs in transit. These are domains operated by ad networks. They aren’t conspicuously resolved along the way, with the status bar at the bottom of the browser window showing these hits momentarily. Although Sigonews.com is the resulting page the users ultimately arrive at, it may not even be affiliated with the cybercriminals who are running this dirty campaign. The pivot of their foul play is a series of advertising networks visited as part of the divert hoax. Incidentally, redirects to several more landing pages may co-occur with the Sigonews issue. These include Techofires.com and Itfactly.com. All of them feature a very similar design and clearly hail from the same development source. Again, the destination sites are simply used for a distraction maneuver. Behind the red herring, there is a nasty traffic monetization hoax zeroing in on computers and Android devices.

This attack won’t take place unless the user unknowingly does something that triggers the infection chain. It can be a headlong acceptance of installation terms allegedly related to one benign application but turning out to be a one-shot consent to allow a bundle of programs to infiltrate a device. The potentially unwanted app constituting this package will instantly add a new browser extension that will, in turn, replace the victim’s default Internet settings with a rogue URL. Another scenario involves a hasty mouse click on an “Allow” button within a popup dialog that says some website wants to show notifications. This action might authorize a malicious script to invoke browser redirects to Sigonews.com further on. No matter which one of the above techniques is the case, the upshot is invariable: the affected web browser will be forwarded to the unwanted page under scrutiny off and on. It takes a specific virus removal procedure to stop this from happening. Keep reading to find out what cleaning steps will thoroughly eradicate the offending code.

Automated removal of Sigonews virus

Owing to an up-to-date database of malware signatures and intelligent behavioral detection, the recommended software can quickly locate the infection, eradicate it and remediate all harmful changes. So go ahead and do the following:

1. Download and install the antimalware tool. Open the solution and have it check your PC for PUPs and other types of malicious software by clicking the Start Computer Scan button

Download Sigonews.com virus remover

2. Rest assured the scan report will list all items that may harm your operating system. Select the detected entries and click Fix Threats to get the troubleshooting completed.

Use Control Panel to get rid of the Sigonews.com virus

• Open up the Control Panel from your Start menu in Windows. Open up the Control Panel from your Start menu in Windows. Depending on the OS build, select Uninstall a program (Windows 10, 7 and Vista) or Add or Remove Programs (Windows 8)

• To facilitate the process of locating the threat, sort the programs list by date to get the latest ones displayed at the very top. Find an unfamiliar, suspicious entry under the Name column, click Uninstall and follow further directions to get the removal done

Sigonews virus removal for Android

Here’s a walkthrough to sort out the Sigonews.com malware issue on an Android device, which might be a target in this malvertising campaign. Keep in mind, though, that uninstall attempts in regular mode may be futile due to the mechanics of this persistent infection. Therefore, you need to perform the procedure in safe mode. Go ahead and do the following:

• Press and hold the Power button. Then, tap and hold the Power off option on the screen. Doing so will boot your device into safe mode.

• Android will ask you to confirm that you’d like to enter safe mode. Tap OK on the dialog.

• You will now see the Safe mode inscription at the bottom left of your screen. Go to Settings and choose Apps.

• Scroll down the list of applications, focusing on the ones that were installed recently. Find Sigonews or a sketchy entry with a different name that could as well be the culprit.

• Select the misbehaving app and tap Uninstall.

• Confirm removal on the relevant dialog box and reboot your device. By default, Android will get you back into regular mode. You should now be good to go – the Sigonews virus won’t be triggering any redirects or irritating popups anymore.

Restore web browser settings to their original defaults

In the circumstances of a complex browser hijack like this, executing a reset makes the most sense despite a few obvious downsides. Customizations such as saved passwords, bookmarked pages etc. will be gone, but so will all the changes made by the potentially unwanted program. The instructions below address the workflow for the web browsers most targeted by the Sigonews.com virus.

Reset Mozilla Firefox

• Open Firefox, type about:support in the URL area and press Enter

• On the Troubleshooting Information screen, spot the Refresh Firefox button and click on it

• Follow subsequent directions to reset Firefox to its original settings

• Restart the browser.

Reset Google Chrome

• Open Chrome, click the icon for Chrome menu and choose Settings

• Scroll down the settings screen and click Show advanced settings

• Click Reset settings

• Finally, confirm the restoration by clicking Reset on the warning message

• Restart Chrome.

Reset Internet Explorer

• Select Internet options under IE’s Tools (Alt+X)

• Proceed by clicking on Advanced tab, then select Reset

• To confirm the intended changes, click Reset on the Reset Internet Explorer Settings screen after ascertaining that the Delete personal settings checkbox is enabled

• Reboot the machine to fully implement the fix.

Reset Safari

• Go to the Safari menu and select Preferences

• When on the Preferences screen, select the Privacy tab and hit the Remove All Website Data button if you are up to erasing all website data stored on your Mac. Otherwise, you can use a site-specific removal option described below

• A dialog will appear, asking you to validate your choice. Click the Remove Now button if you are sure. Be advised this will log you out of online services and undo personalized web browser settings such as saved passwords, etc.

• Safari also allows deleting data for specific sites rather than all sites in general. To use this option, click the Details button under Privacy tab

• Select the websites for which you would like to erase data and click the Remove button

• Click the Done button to confirm and exit. You can also select the Remove All option to remove all data stored by the listed websites.

Revise your security status

Post-factum assessment of the accuracy component in malware removal scenarios is a great habit that prevents the comeback of harmful code or replication of its unattended fractions. Make sure you are good to go by running an additional safety checkup.

Download Sigonews virus removal tool