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Got a Virus!

T

TopperHarley

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 1, 2010
11
0
Hey guys,

So my MBP 2011 edition (13') is 3 weeks old, hasnt been used much. Today I was surfing google images of pictures of southern italy as Ill be flying there next month (honest to God, I wasn't looking at porn!!!). All of a sudden I got some worms/trojans and the message popped up telling me my computer is infected.

Automatically a MacGuard anti-virus program began downloading. I scanned my computer and it identified some worms/trojans/viruses (not sure what the difference is). I tried to "clean" my pc, but it told me I had to register the product, which required me to buy it obviously (around $80). The risk level of the viruses was medium, and every few minutes my safari would open up on web pages for Viagra ads, Lady Gaga, Gay porn, etc.

Seeing how my pc is new and I had very little installed on, I just erased the hardrive and reinstalled everything. Took me 4 hours, but my computer works like new now.

Is there any software I should consider downloading to prevent this happening again? I'm seriously thinking about buying MacGuard, but one of the reasons I got the Mac was because I thought they were more impervious to these sorts of things. I could understand if I was looking at porn or questionable websites, but I wasnt.

Any advice? Should I use a different browser than Safari? Thank you very much in advance!
 
There has never been a virus in the wild that affects Mac OS X since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some education and common sense and care in what software you install:

The first section of that link deals specifically with the MacDefender/MacSecurity/MacProtector/MacGuard issue, which is not a virus. I encourage you to read it.
 
Lol I feel like an idiot now, thank you for the links to those articles. I notice there was a recent article about similar Malware that downloads without asking for the admin password, kind of scary, but hopefully that update will come out soon.

Thanks again, and I apologize for my ignorance :S
 
TopperHarley said:
Hey guys,

So my MBP 2011 edition (13') is 3 weeks old, hasnt been used much. Today I was surfing google images of pictures of southern italy as Ill be flying there next month (honest to God, I wasn't looking at porn!!!). All of a sudden I got some worms/trojans and the message popped up telling me my computer is infected.

Automatically a MacGuard anti-virus program began downloading. I scanned my computer and it identified some worms/trojans/viruses (not sure what the difference is). I tried to "clean" my pc, but it told me I had to register the product, which required me to buy it obviously (around $80). The risk level of the viruses was medium, and every few minutes my safari would open up on web pages for Viagra ads, Lady Gaga, Gay porn, etc.

Seeing how my pc is new and I had very little installed on, I just erased the hardrive and reinstalled everything. Took me 4 hours, but my computer works like new now.

Is there any software I should consider downloading to prevent this happening again? I'm seriously thinking about buying MacGuard, but one of the reasons I got the Mac was because I thought they were more impervious to these sorts of things. I could understand if I was looking at porn or questionable websites, but I wasnt.

Any advice? Should I use a different browser than Safari? Thank you very much in advance!
Click to expand...

I've come across this scam a few times (once also when in Google image search); the webpage automatically redirected to it. Once the .dmg even downloaded automatically.


Solution:
DO NOT download these "anti virus" programs - your Mac doesn't need them. If the file downloaded automatically, DO NOT INSTALL IT, instead search your HD (with Spotlight) for it and delete it.

While GGJ is right about active viruses on OS X, malware for OS X does surface from time to time, so it's best to exercise caution.

Intego Mac Security blog - Mac Defender Malware Risk: Low
Intego Mac Security blog - MacGuard malware Risk: Medium
 
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