My iMac just told me it had discovered 5 viruses -- it apparently (?) did a scan after the computer "experienced some trouble" and shut down. Immediately windows to buy Norton popped up. Should I do this? How do I identify the viruses or remove them?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iMac 21.5″, macOS 10.15
laverne924 wrote:
How do I identify the viruses or remove them?
You don't. First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac. This documents describe what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community and Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support.
There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs. There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.
Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear. They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware. Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.
There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is designed solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it. The free version is more than adequate for most users.
If you're getting these notifications in the upper right hand corner of the screen try this in Safari's Websites settings pane:
laverne924 wrote:
How do I identify the viruses or remove them?
You don't. First, there is no reason to ever install or run any 3rd party "cleaning", "optimizing", "speed-up", anti-virus, VPN or security apps on your Mac. This documents describe what you need to know and do in order to protect your Mac: Effective defenses against malware and other threats - Apple Community and Recognize and avoid phishing messages, phony support calls, and other scams - Apple Support.
There are no known viruses, i.e. self propagating, for Macs. There are, however, adware and malware which require the user to install although unwittingly most of the time thru sneaky links, etc.
Anti Virus developers try to group all types as viruses into their ad campaigns of fear. They do a poor job of the detecting and isolating the adware and malware. Since there are no viruses these apps use up a lot of system resources searching for what is non-existent and adversely affect system and app performance.
There is one app, Malwarebytes, which was developed by a long time contributor to these forums and a highly respected member of the computer security community, that is designed solely to seek out adware and known malware and remove it. The free version is more than adequate for most users.
If you're getting these notifications in the upper right hand corner of the screen try this in Safari's Websites settings pane:
No; it's a scam. A message warning of malware will only be legitimate if you manually started a scanner or uploaded a file to a website.
(254230)
All Mac OS needs for protection is to keep it up to date and to restart the computer about 1x per week. Other than that leave it alone. Never install any third party apps such as:
Just enjoy your iMac.
If this Notification appeared in the upper right of your screen, then the instructions provided by Old Toad will remove it. This is a notification that you would have to have allowed. Some websites you visit will ask you if you want them to send you Notifications and if you choose Allow, you will find those websites there. Some websites you allow will just pop up those fake Notifications because they get paid to do that by those companies that are trying to get you to install their software.
+1 Yes, it 100% a scam!!!
Please follow OTs advice.
Thanks, Neil. I wonder what caused the computer to have a "problem"? And what should I do to protect it, if anything?
I just got a notification on my iMac about 5 viruses. How do I handle this?
