Think I have a virus

[jamesthemidwife]

Hi, looking for some advice if thats ok -

Last night, around 1am, emails were sent from my Yahoo account to almost all of my inbox containing just a link to a russian based website.

I assume this is a virus; my yahoo email account is accessed on my iMac through safari, my MacBook Pro through Mail and is added onto my iPhone too - could there be a virus on all three devices? Or could it be the mail account itself that is infected?

This is the first time I have had a virus on a mac, and I stupidly do not have anti-virus software - can anyone recommend one for me?

Thank you in advance.

James

 

[BlueRevolution]

There are no viruses for Mac.

Sounds like your mail account has been compromised. Change your password.

 

[R94N]

It sounds like it's an issue with your Email, not your devices. I would follow BlueRevolution's advice - change your password immediately.

 

[R94N]

This is the first time I have had a virus on a mac, and I stupidly do not have anti-virus software - can anyone recommend one for me?

Thank you in advance.

James

Many Mac users do not have antivirus software. Many of them find that safe computing practices (don't click on random links or access websites you're not familiar with, don't open attachments or allow unfamiliar apps to run on your computer, that sort of thing) works for them and they don't need an antivirus.

Some Mac users are very careful though and prefer to use an antivirus. I recommend iAntivirus, which is a simple application but does a good job. It's also free which is good. They have an official site, go take a look if you want

 

[stridemat]

Many Mac users do not have antivirus software. Many of them find that safe computing practices (don't click on random links or access websites you're not familiar with, don't open attachments or allow unfamiliar apps to run on your computer, that sort of thing) works for them and they don't need an antivirus.

Not strictly true. Many people don't have antivirus on their mac's because there are no viruses in the wild that can 'infect' OS X.

 

[gnasher729]

Hi, looking for some advice if thats ok -

Last night, around 1am, emails were sent from my Yahoo account to almost all of my inbox containing just a link to a russian based website.

I assume this is a virus; my yahoo email account is accessed on my iMac through safari, my MacBook Pro through Mail and is added onto my iPhone too - could there be a virus on all three devices? Or could it be the mail account itself that is infected?

This is the first time I have had a virus on a mac, and I stupidly do not have anti-virus software - can anyone recommend one for me?

Thank you in advance.

James

You think you have a virus, and you think you have a Macintosh. I can assure you that one of these two believes is wrong; of course I can't know which one. You wouldn't be the first to think they have a virus on a Mac, but you would be the first to actually have one.

Having no anti-virus software on the Macintosh is not stupid - there is no anti-virus software for the Macintosh that would do anything useful.

Quite possible that your Yahoo email account has been hacked; that has nothing to do with a virus but I would be very careful because someone might be able to read all your mail on that account.

 

[spinnerlys]

Information on what a virus, a trojan and some other malware is. Read only if you want to know more about it and feel more secure, but only then.

You can also use MRoogle to find hundreds of AntiVirus threads that go on and on about those virus threats for Mac OS X, the ones that don't exist yet.

 

[angelwatt]

Having no anti-virus software on the Macintosh is not stupid - there is no anti-virus software for the Macintosh that would do anything useful.

Except that anti-virus software also scans for trojans and spyware, which do exist on Mac, even if there are very few of them. Like OpinionSpy that was announced days ago.

 

[Patrick J]

Except that anti-virus software also scans for trojans and spyware, which do exist on Mac, even if there are very few of them. Like OpinionSpy that was announced days ago.

Both of those require you to enter Admin password. Better to exercise caution when entering passwords than to have an antivirus bogging down the system all the time.

 

[Gregg2]

I assume this is a virus; ...

Many people do that for just about any problem. Those who are using Macs are making a false assumption.