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Think my computers been hacked into

N

naturesway

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 4, 2009
6
0
Hi,
Excuse my ignorance i what i write, but there is some unusual things happening with everything internet and how slow my mac is now running,

I received an email from a name i thought i recognised, there were attachments and and a few words, "not ususal" i open the attachment, and either i accidently clicjed it or it just moved itself to my screen, all i remember what say oh s...,
this file was embedded with something, as was the email,

it seemed everything i emailed was going twice, and there seemed to be a slow down point before i could try to get into hotmails advice centre, which i never could, until many tries later.

I have notice also that any thing that relates to my internet connection is slowed down then either i can't enter into the site or once in the site, i can't go further, this seems to be often the help sites, even this site .

Today i got on a site i go to often, a chat room, and found some details posted to me that were strikingly similar to a letter i had written to a friend, which was never sent,

I am using apples demo anti virus software and firefox, i've changed passwords, etc, but nothings working

If anyone can give some advice on this, and soon, i would really appreciate it

Regards and thanks
 
naturesway said:
Hi,

I received an email from a name i thought i recognised, there were attachments and and a few words, "not ususal" i open the attachment, and either i accidently clicjed it or it just moved itself to my screen, all i remember what say oh s...,
this file was embedded with something, as was the email,
Click to expand...

Never, ever open attachments. Even from people you know. If they are not 100% up on there computer knowledge they are NOT safe. But with that statement this is more of a Windows problem than a Mac problem.
 
naturesway said:
I downloaded the demo of pretectmac anti virus, i have imac osx
Click to expand...

Thats not an anti virus made by Apple, Apple has nothing to do with that, you should be more shrude next time.

Viruses dont even exist for Mac, so what were you doing installing an Anti Virus?

I suggest backing up all your data manually, not using Time Machine, and then reinstalling OS X from a clean install using the DVD's that came with your Mac.
 
Ok, not a good article to quote. I picked the first thing in google that came up that was relative to what I was looking for. Macrumors did run an article about it.

And yes I do know that there is a distinct difference between a trojan and a virus. I know they are not the same, however countless people seem to say that viruses and trojans do not exist for Macs. This is simply not true. Though they do not exist in the numbers as they do on Windows based computers, they still do exist.
 
kwood said:
And yes I do know that there is a distinct difference between a trojan and a virus. I know they are not the same, however countless people seem to say that viruses and trojans do not exist for Macs. This is simply not true. Though they do not exist in the numbers as they do on Windows based computers, they still do exist.
Click to expand...

Trojans, yes; viruses, no.
 
kwood said:
Ok, not a good article to quote. I picked the first thing in google that came up that was relative to what I was looking for. Macrumors did run an article about it.

And yes I do know that there is a distinct difference between a trojan and a virus. I know they are not the same, however countless people seem to say that viruses and trojans do not exist for Macs. This is simply not true. Though they do not exist in the numbers as they do on Windows based computers, they still do exist.
Click to expand...

Trojans exist on any platform. Trojans even exist on non-computer platforms. ("Hello, I'm calling from your bank...") There is simply no way to safeguard that a program claiming to do X doesn't actually do Y. There are ways to control the damage that a trojan could do, like forcing password prompts when it tries to delete files, but if a user gives it the go-ahead, there's nothing to stop it.

Nobody is saying that Mac OS X, or any platform, is immune to trojans. But they are rarer, and generally are more limited in the amount of damage they can do.

But viruses -- no, not yet. It's probably only a matter of time, but so far, so good.
 
There's not much on a Mac that could infect you from an email attachment. Most malicious attachments are designed to attack Windows machines so they have no effect on Mac. Also, if by chance it came from a attachment, then your machine wasn't hacked, it would be infected. Just clearing up the terminology.

You might simply be looking harder than you were before this because you think you're infected. Kind of like liking a car you think is unique, but then noticing them everywhere after you buy it. If these little issues persist though, I suggest finding a tech-savvy friend, relative, coworker, etc. to take a look at it that is familiar with Macs. It would be hard to walk you through checking logs and processes on the machine the troubleshoot this, especially if you are not comfortable with the computer. If there's an Apple store near you you could try taking it to the Genius Bar in there, but the people aren't always as bright as they advertise.
 
None of these arguments are helping this guy, but for your information people who say viruses and trojans dont exist for Mac because Mac's aren't as popular are ignorant, nearly 10% of computer users use Mac, with some using Unix etc and the rest using Windows yet NO viruses and only 1 trojan exists for Mac out of thousands for Windows, so do the math.
 
The only thing it could have been is a trojan.

You could run a free scanner like iAntiVirus to scan for it.

Someone above recommended scanning with ClamAV. ClamAV only detects Windows threats.

Your hotmail account could also have been phished, so change your hotmail password.
 
Thanks everyone for the conversations and advice, conflicting as it may have been,
I pretty much changed every password i could on the Mac and anywhere else incl hotmail, things seemed to have quietened down, however it was only after loading up the demo of intego net barrier, though still not sure about hotmail, as they say no use crying over spilt milk,

Reading on hotmails discussion threads, i don't think i am the only one to think something a little odd is happening, perhaps its not hotmails problem, but these things tend to affect everyone in time, well thats my view,

Sorry i used the word Virus, in a panic, i plain forgot,

Just one thing that i am still curious about, why, whenever the word security or password, was entered or clicked, the page went from 10 sec's to load to about 30 sec's, which mostly just went to "server busy", in google, in answers, in msn, and with all this anti ...... why is it that the only thing it picked up just after this began was adobe flash being a threat, i don't even remember downloading adobe flash,

anyway thanks to all of you "i'll be back i'm sure"

Have a nice day
 
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