Zum.com Removal Guide

Zum.com is a questionable South Korean search engine that can be set as your home page in your Internet Explorer browser when you install some legitimate software. Since it can make changes to your browser, we have categorized it as a browser hijacker. Although this hijacker mainly targets South Korean computer users, it does not mean that you cannot get infected with this malware in America or anywhere else in the world. Browser hijackers can usually pose a threat to your virtual security; however, in all fairness, we cannot claim that this one is a dangerous infection. Still, you never know what the future might bring, so why would you keep a Korean search engine on board if you are not even familiar with the language, right? Leaving useless or potentially unreliable tools and applications on your computer might cause system security issues after some time. If you do not want to wait till cyber criminals find a way to exploit this hijacker and gain access to your computer through it, you should remove Zum.com.

You can find the official website of this hijacker at zuminternet.com. The strange thing about this otherwise Korean website is that the menu is in English (e.g., “About us,” “Service”), but the rest of the information is all in Korean. So unless you speak the language and can read it as well, this website is not much of a help if you want to learn more about this search engine. We have found that Zum.com is hosted on 74.113.237.180 IP address, which is located in Yonkers, New York. Research shows that currently this hijacker mainly spreads via legitimate ALTools software installers (altools.com) developed by ESTsoft Corp. This software development company is located in South Korea and has been in the business for more than two decades. It is possible to get infected with this hijacker if you install any of the ALTools products, including ALZip, ALSee, and ALToolbar.

Although right now it seems that this hijacker only affects Internet Explorer and is mainly distributed via ALTools software installers, you should be aware that browser hijackers usually end up bundled with malicious software installers sooner or later. Therefore, we believe it is important that you know how you can avoid such bundles. These malicious installers are mostly hosted on questionable file-sharing websites. If you land on one while searching for a new tool or free software to download, you need to understand that clicking on any content on such a page may lead to infecting your machine with a package of malware infections. The same can happen if your computer has been infected with malware already, such as adware applications, which can display unreliable third-party ads while you are surfing the web. One single click; that is all it takes. If you are in doubt with regard to the malware situation on your computer, it is best to remove Zum.com and scan your computer for potential infections.

As we have already mentioned, this browser hijacker is most popular in South Korea. According to statistics, these are the main areas where it spreads: South Korea 96.1%, United States 1.9%, and Mexico 0.6%. This search page offers articles, advertisements, and a search as well; and, of course, all these in Korean. Right now it seems that the main goal is to make this site more popular and that is why it is promoted by the ALTools software products. However, there is no guarantee that criminals will not figure out a way to inject their own malicious links to hijack the advertisements, for example. Therefore, we believe that it is safer for you to delete Zum.com from your browser.

There are three options for you if you want to eliminate this hijacker. First, you can simply reset your Internet Explorer browser through its settings. Second, you can modify the Windows registry data this hijacker changes to make Zum.com your home page. Please follow our guide below if you would like to manually take care of this infection. Finally, you can always use a professional antimalware tool to scan your computer for all existing security threats and to eliminate them all. If you keep this tool updated, you will have full protection on your PC.

Remove Zum.com from browser

1. Press Win+R and type in regedit to start up the Windows Registry editor.
2. Locate the following registry key and value name: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main|Start Page.
3. If the value data is set to zum.com, replace it with a home page URL of your choice (e.g., google.com).
4. Close editor.