johnnieo26

Q: malware 2016

Why did I receive 2 adware/malware notices in the second week of March, 2016?  Screen Shot 2016-03-12 at 1.51.22 PM.png

iMac with Retina 5K display, iOS 9.2.1, 2016 iMac and MacBook Pro 10.9.5

Posted on Mar 12, 2016 2:34 PM

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Q: malware 2016

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  • by johnnieo26,

    johnnieo26 johnnieo26 Mar 12, 2016 2:37 PM in response to johnnieo26
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Mar 12, 2016 2:37 PM in response to johnnieo26

    I want to add that 'Sweeper' eliminated the threat. Great tool! But why am I getting these now? I bought my 27" iMac in February of 2016. I've been a Mac user for over 10 years with no other occurrences like this. What's up?

  • by MrHoffman,

    MrHoffman MrHoffman Mar 12, 2016 3:11 PM in response to johnnieo26
    Level 6 (15,627 points)
    Mac OS X
    Mar 12, 2016 3:11 PM in response to johnnieo26

    There was no threat, so nothing to clear.   That's the usual Javascript pop-up scam — no malware, just the usual scare tactics to get folks to pay money out of fear and variously to open up remote access to some potentially unsavory folks and who then compromises their own security.  

     

    Quit Safari, hold the shift key, and relaunch.  This avoids re-opening the tabs, which would restart the Javascript pop-up.

     

    Now whether what was installed here in an attempt to remediate, well, nothing, has compromised your system is unclear.   I'm not familiar with "Sweeper".   However, more than a few of the add-on anti-virus and anti-malware tools themselves have security vulnerabilities, and the tools are — per the vendors's own representatives published reports — surprisingly ineffective at their specified tasks.