I go downstairs on my imac and my screen is fluttered with porn. And on my menu bar is this thing. I don't have anti virus on my computer. I looked at activity monitor all I see is this MacGuard. Is this part of the mac-defender.
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virus - mac defender?
- Thread starter puckhead193
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Appears so. It's the new variant of MacDefender that doesn't require an admin password to install.
- Open 'Activity Monitor' found in your Applications/Utilities folder.
- Find 'MacDefender' or 'MacProtector' or somethign similar in the process list.
- Force Quit that process.
- Go to your Applications folder in Finder, locate MacDefendor/Protector.
- Move it to the trash, empty the trash.
- Go to System Preferences > Accounts > Login Items.
- Click the Mac Defendor/Protector item, then click the little minus sign at the bottom.
- Open Safari > Preferences > General and uncheck the box that says 'Open "Safe" items downloaded in Safari. This is located at the very bottom.
- Quit everything, reboot for good measure.
thanks.. my parents want me to take it to apple... for them to do nothing about it. Might do a re-install of OS X just to be safe.
what does this virus do?
Its not technically a virus, its more a scam than anything. If you poked around you would see that it wants you to pay to 'disinfect yourself.' You would be giving your credit card number to scammers somewhere. It doesn't do anything harmful to your computer. Don't waste your time reloading it, it is quite unnecessary.
If you need to reassure yourself (or your parents) download the free Sophos antivirus (http://www.sophos.com/en-us/products/free-tools/sophos-antivirus-for-mac-home-edition.aspx).
yawn and here i'm thinking its something bad where out credit card info was stolen etc.
well that's good news!
Thanks i can now breath!!
NOT good advice! Sophos is almost as good as a virus! There is absolutely no need for antivirus software on Macs, in fact, installing such software often does more harm than good. Take a moment to search this forum and you'll see why!
Sophos is not recommended, as it can actually increase your Mac's vulnerability. No viruses exist in the wild that can run on Mac OS X, and there never have been any, since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some basic education, 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 will clarify: If you are concerned that you are sharing viruses (especially with Windows machines) Sophos is a fine option, as long as it is uninstalled after you are done with your scan.
While it is true that the engine runs as a superuser, and that an exploit could be (but hasn't yet) been written to take advantage of that with Sophos, it does to an excellent job of finding and removing malware that is lying dormant.
While it is true that the engine runs as a superuser, and that an exploit could be (but hasn't yet) been written to take advantage of that with Sophos, it does to an excellent job of finding and removing malware that is lying dormant.
You can do the same thing with ClamXav, without the increased vulnerability, and without the need to uninstall. However, Windows users should be running their own antivirus, to protect against malware from all sources, not just from your Mac.