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- Oct 31, 2012
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Sorry that my first post is asking for help but am so desperate and frightened as I am totally reliant on my mac.
It started 2 days ago, when I stupidly accepted a download from a website I was unfamiliar with as it said I needed to update my Adobe flash version and I believed it and clicked yes to download. As it was downloading I thought better of it so didn't actually open the download to launch it but it seems downloading was enough for this horrible malware.
I couldn't see the name of the file or where it has saved it so I don't know how to delete it. What has happened since is that my computer has been running like a dead dog in glue and most noticeably, it keeps randomly redirecting my websites. So I can be browsing the web as per usual and it will suddenly divert me to some other site (not the same site, and sometimes they are legitimate sites like Groupon) but always advertising something. It isn't my router (have 3 other machines on the same router and there are no problems there). I *think* it has installed some sort of backdoor on my computer for something remote to send diversion instructions. Initially this was about every 5 minutes, and then I ran a virus checker (have now downloaded and ran about 6 different ones - all the recommended ones not something random and stupid that turns out to be malware in itself). The first (clam) didn't find anything. Then the second one found a file it said was infected so I deleted that. I thought it was solved as the problem went away for about 5 hours and then last night it started up again. I haven't downloaded anything new (except the virus scanners). McAfee and avast tell me now and then that a website is infected (and these are not the type of sites to be infected, but instead it is happening when the redirections happen), but neither of them DO anything about it. They don't stop or delete whatever is doing this to my machine. They just tell me it's happening, (and only on occasion, not every time) which I can see for myself when I end up somewhere completely random.
I have looked in the utilities/activity monitor and saw that no matter how many times I close it down, the flash player was opening itself up every 5 minutes. Sometimes this would coincide with the redirections, but not every time strangely enough. So I I have disabled that plugin for starters. I also read that java or javascript was sometimes used as a backdoor so I have disabled that, but I need it on as my own website (which I am in the process of updating for work) uses it.
I am on a macbook pro running snow leopard version 10.6.8. I am now running Sophos virus scan which is the 5th or 6th thing I have tried since yesterday to find and kill it. Something is definitely on my computer and making it do strange things.
Please please help. I have searched and searched on google but none of the help suggestions I have read have worked and there is relatively little, just a lot of people smugly saying 'macs don't get viruses'. Which may be technically true but this is hideous malware and it's stopping me from doing my job and my business will go down the toilet if I don't get this sorted.
Thank you
Mims
It started 2 days ago, when I stupidly accepted a download from a website I was unfamiliar with as it said I needed to update my Adobe flash version and I believed it and clicked yes to download. As it was downloading I thought better of it so didn't actually open the download to launch it but it seems downloading was enough for this horrible malware.
I couldn't see the name of the file or where it has saved it so I don't know how to delete it. What has happened since is that my computer has been running like a dead dog in glue and most noticeably, it keeps randomly redirecting my websites. So I can be browsing the web as per usual and it will suddenly divert me to some other site (not the same site, and sometimes they are legitimate sites like Groupon) but always advertising something. It isn't my router (have 3 other machines on the same router and there are no problems there). I *think* it has installed some sort of backdoor on my computer for something remote to send diversion instructions. Initially this was about every 5 minutes, and then I ran a virus checker (have now downloaded and ran about 6 different ones - all the recommended ones not something random and stupid that turns out to be malware in itself). The first (clam) didn't find anything. Then the second one found a file it said was infected so I deleted that. I thought it was solved as the problem went away for about 5 hours and then last night it started up again. I haven't downloaded anything new (except the virus scanners). McAfee and avast tell me now and then that a website is infected (and these are not the type of sites to be infected, but instead it is happening when the redirections happen), but neither of them DO anything about it. They don't stop or delete whatever is doing this to my machine. They just tell me it's happening, (and only on occasion, not every time) which I can see for myself when I end up somewhere completely random.
I have looked in the utilities/activity monitor and saw that no matter how many times I close it down, the flash player was opening itself up every 5 minutes. Sometimes this would coincide with the redirections, but not every time strangely enough. So I I have disabled that plugin for starters. I also read that java or javascript was sometimes used as a backdoor so I have disabled that, but I need it on as my own website (which I am in the process of updating for work) uses it.
I am on a macbook pro running snow leopard version 10.6.8. I am now running Sophos virus scan which is the 5th or 6th thing I have tried since yesterday to find and kill it. Something is definitely on my computer and making it do strange things.
Please please help. I have searched and searched on google but none of the help suggestions I have read have worked and there is relatively little, just a lot of people smugly saying 'macs don't get viruses'. Which may be technically true but this is hideous malware and it's stopping me from doing my job and my business will go down the toilet if I don't get this sorted.
Thank you
Mims
