'infected' suggests its a virus. thought macs didnt get viruses. haha
They don't, since this isn't a virus. Viruses aren't the only form of malware that can infect computers.
I guess being too lazy and, frankly, cheap to spend that $29 seems pretty stupid now, doesn't it?
Choosing not to upgrade to Snow Leopard or Lion doesn't have anything to do with being lazy or cheap. There is no need to upgrade, simply for the sake of upgrading. Leopard still runs quite well for many users.
Company offers free antivirus software?
There are many free antivirus apps on both Windows and Mac platforms. It's nothing new.
Either way as I'm waiting to buy a new iMac I'm less than happy to hear about Mac viruses.
You can be happy again. This isn't a virus, and there never has been one since Mac OS X was released. This is a trojan, and not the first one.
I used this and it said it removed it and then when I restarted my mac i ran the web checker again and it said I still had it?
To be certain, just use the
Terminal commands that have already been posted everywhere.
Macs are not immune to malware, but no true viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any since it was released over 10 years ago. The only malware in the wild that can affect Mac OS X is a handful of trojans, which can be easily avoided by practicing safe computing (see below). Also, Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Lion have
anti-malware protection built in, further reducing the need for 3rd party antivirus apps.
- Make sure your built-in Mac firewall is enabled in System Preferences > Security > Firewall
- Uncheck "Open "safe" files after downloading" in Safari > Preferences > General
- Uncheck "Enable Java" in Safari > Preferences > Security. This will completely protect you from the Flashback malware. Leave this unchecked until you visit a trusted site that requires Java, then re-enable only for your visit to that site. (This is not to be confused with JavaScript, which you should leave enabled.)
- Change your DNS servers to OpenDNS servers by reading this.
- Be careful to only install software from trusted, reputable sites. Never install pirated software. If you're not sure about an app, ask in this forum before installing.
- Never let someone else have access to install anything on your Mac.
- Don't open files that you receive from unknown or untrusted sources.
- Make sure all network, email, financial and other important passwords are complex, including upper and lower case letters, numbers and special characters.
- Always keep your Mac and application software updated. Use Software Update for your Mac software. For other software, it's safer to get updates from the developer's site or from the menu item "Check for updates", rather than installing from any notification window that pops up while you're surfing the web.
That's all you need to do to keep your Mac completely free of any virus, trojan, spyware, keylogger, or other malware. You don't need any 3rd party software to keep your Mac secure.
If you insist on running antivirus,
ClamXav is one of the best choices, since it isn't a resource hog, detects both Mac and Windows malware and doesn't run with elevated privileges. You can run scans when you choose, rather than leaving it running all the time, slowing your system. ClamXav has a Sentry feature which, if enabled, will use significant system resources to constantly scan. Disable the Sentry feature. You don't need it. Also, when you first install ClamXav, as with many antivirus apps, it may perform an initial full system scan, which will consume resources. Once the initial scan is complete, periodic on-demand scans will have much lower demands on resources.
