So I got a notification about malware on my Mac, what next?

[2aw]

Yesterday I got a notification in Chrome, saying that one of the extensions I installed, Simple Blocker, had malware, and was auto-deleted by google. I was using that extension for months (years?) and it worked fine during that time.

This is the second time i got malware on my mac, the first time was also via chrome extensions, where an extension changed my search engine to a spammy one and I had to google + search my entire computer for the reason why, until i realized the bad searches only happened in Chrome, and it was an extension causing the problem and I thought google would protect me from bad extensions, but no, they don't care about that stuff, ha ha ha.

So it happened again, years later. The bad extension was auto-deleted by google, at least they did that part right, and I did a scan with Malwarebytes https://www.malwarebytes.com/ and no malware was found.

What should I do next? Are there going to be problems in the future with my computer and personal info?

 

[casperes1996]

The extent of its malicious behaviour was likely contained within the Chrome sandbox and after being auto deleted by Google I don't think you need to worry. That said, if you want to be cautious the only complete answer it to wipe the machine and begin it afresh.
That said, depending on the nature of how it was malicious, you could have bigger issues than your machine being contaminated; Like your web logins being compromised. Probably not, but it's possible.

Chrome Extensions is not a curated store like the App Store and Safari Extensions on there. It's more of a free for all on the Chrome Web Store. Thus, things like malware is not as pro-actively screened for and is more of a "we'll remove it if we're notified it's bad" reactive approach.

 

[Fishrrman]

Stop using Chrome.

Try running MalwareBytes (it's free).

 

[floral]

Stop using Chrome.

Try running MalwareBytes (it's free).

I never understand why nearly every Mac user runs Chrome over Safari. This might be one of the key instigators of people saying 16GB of ram isn't enough even for light web browsing.

 

[rpmurray]

Chrome Extensions is not a curated store like the App Store and Safari Extensions on there. It's more of a free for all on the Chrome Web Store. Thus, things like malware is not as pro-actively screened for and is more of a "we'll remove it if we're notified it's bad" reactive approach.

Actually, Apple doesn't do much screening for malware either. Most of the testing of apps is just making sure they work and follow the Apple guidelines. That's why you see stories every so often about malware that's been on the store for years getting removed, or periodic sweeps by Apple to remove copycat or bogus apps with subscriptions whenever Apple is shamed in the media.

 

[casperes1996]

Actually, Apple doesn't do much screening for malware either. Most of the testing of apps is just making sure they work and follow the Apple guidelines. That's why you see stories every so often about malware that's been on the store for years getting removed, or periodic sweeps by Apple to remove copycat or bogus apps with subscriptions whenever Apple is shamed in the media.

You can argue about the degree to which the screening happens, but Apple does at least do rudimentary checking

 

[HDFan]

I never understand why nearly every Mac user runs Chrome over Safari.

Data Source? Chrome leads the worldwide market due to Windows, but I could find no numbers for Mac Users. Based on forum posts the opposite seems to be true.

 

[dmccloud]

I never understand why nearly every Mac user runs Chrome over Safari. This might be one of the key instigators of people saying 16GB of ram isn't enough even for light web browsing.

After Chrome royally screwed up M1 Macs just after their initial release (runaway/rogue update process churning through battery and RAM constantly, I stopped using Chrome altogether on both Mac and Windows. My primary browser on both platforms is Firefox, but I do have Brave and Edge installed for testing websites against the Chromium engine (which any Chrome-derived browser runs on).

While Chrome was a great browser at first, Google has slowly introduced bloat into their browser while simultaneously moving away from any true focus on quality or data security. It seems that Chrome has become a way for Google to harvest even more data about its users, which does not sit well with me.

 

[2aw]

After Chrome royally screwed up M1 Macs just after their initial release (runaway/rogue update process churning through battery and RAM constantly, I stopped using Chrome altogether on both Mac and Windows. My primary browser on both platforms is Firefox, but I do have Brave and Edge installed for testing websites against the Chromium engine (which any Chrome-derived browser runs on).

While Chrome was a great browser at first, Google has slowly introduced bloat into their browser while simultaneously moving away from any true focus on quality or data security. It seems that Chrome has become a way for Google to harvest even more data about its users, which does not sit well with me.

You may not like Chrome, but there is no better browser:

Alternatives include:

Safari: Off the top of my head, the browser user interface is too small (and personally I dislike the grey colour), also not many extensions, also missing some features I use in Chrome, like a properly working zoom feature.

Firefox: Slow (compared to Chrome), also missing some common extensions that are normally found in Chrome, that I have to use.

As for Chrome, it isn't perfect, off the top of my head some downsides are: high RAM usage (but at least it is a fast browser, but I also have enough RAM in my MacBook Pro, so this isn't an issue for me), very high amount of telemetry to Google (but I don't care if they collect that data, other browsers might collect some more (Hello Edge!) or even less (Brave browser), but they still have not released a better browser than Chrome).

I do not want this thread to turn into discussion about Chrome, I am sticking to the browser, there are many good reasons why Chrome has an 80% market share of the browser market, if you can't see the reasons why then that is your problem.

If you want to use another browser I am perfectly fine with that, but please don't come here trying to convince people to not use Chrome.

 

[casperes1996]

Safari: Off the top of my head, the browser user interface is too small (and personally I dislike the grey colour), also not many extensions, also missing some features I use in Chrome, like a properly working zoom feature.

The small UI is actually one of the most attractive things about Safari to my mind. All other browsers feel so clunky and like they get in the way, where Safari focusses on the content. Matter of preference. As for Zoom, there's both pinch to zoom that enlarges content directly and then there's cmd+"+"/"-" for page level canvas zoom setting. This seems to me to be fairly equivalent to Chrome. Definitely fewer extensions and Chrome's general extensibility system is more flexible.

I do not want this thread to turn into discussion about Chrome, I am sticking to the browser, there are many good reasons why Chrome has an 80% market share of the browser market, if you can't see the reasons why then that is your problem.

If you want to use another browser I am perfectly fine with that, but please don't come here trying to convince people to not use Chrome.

It's a matter of preference and there's value in the different choices out there. If you look at web standards, Chrome tends to have much greater support for features web pages may make use of. Especially some of the newer features to come out. For most pages Safari will work just fine but there are pages out there that just don't work in Safari. I wanted to chime in briefly on this but all in all I agree that this thread shouldn't devolve into a browser war; There's reasons to use different browsers, reasons people may have different preferences, and while there is also value in discussions about the pros and cons of various browsers, it's a topic that already has several threads dedicated to it.

 

[dmccloud]

You may not like Chrome, but there is no better browser:

Alternatives include:

Safari: Off the top of my head, the browser user interface is too small (and personally I dislike the grey colour), also not many extensions, also missing some features I use in Chrome, like a properly working zoom feature.

Firefox: Slow (compared to Chrome), also missing some common extensions that are normally found in Chrome, that I have to use.

As for Chrome, it isn't perfect, off the top of my head some downsides are: high RAM usage (but at least it is a fast browser, but I also have enough RAM in my MacBook Pro, so this isn't an issue for me), very high amount of telemetry to Google (but I don't care if they collect that data, other browsers might collect some more (Hello Edge!) or even less (Brave browser), but they still have not released a better browser than Chrome).

I do not want this thread to turn into discussion about Chrome, I am sticking to the browser, there are many good reasons why Chrome has an 80% market share of the browser market, if you can't see the reasons why then that is your problem.

If you want to use another browser I am perfectly fine with that, but please don't come here trying to convince people to not use Chrome.

I wasn't trying to convince anyone of anything, just sharing my personal experiences. Perhaps you should take your own advice and NOT try to convince everyone that Chrome is the best browser either. Market share does not automatically equate to the "best", which is far too subjective a term to even mean the same thing for everyone in the first place. Furthermore, everyone has different criteria for what they value and look for in software - whether an OS, word processor, photo editing, or even browsing the web.

 

[HDFan]

there are many good reasons why Chrome has an 80% market share of the browser market,

What is its share of the Mac Market? Haven't been able to find any numbers and since Safari is the default assume the numbers are reversed on Macs/IOS devices?

 

[floral]

Data Source? Chrome leads the worldwide market due to Windows, but I could find no numbers for Mac Users. Based on forum posts the opposite seems to be true.

Source: My memory :P
This is a very unreliable source...