Mac Defender

Thankd WZZZ!! Super helpful!! I learned that lesson the hard way! Next time I will do my research before giving out my credit card number! I guess I was just feeling generous today!

In my activities monitor, there is no MacDefender, there is MacProtector, is that the same?

Thanks for your help!

Yes it is.

Thanks so much for your help!

You're welcome!

referring to the link I posted earlirer for MacDefenderKiller it is a link to the MacUpdate website. They are highly reputable and have an extensive vetting process .... in other words they don't post something until they've checked it out. Understandable that you're leary about downloading something else, and if you can remove it manually following the other instructions that is probably best, but for those that would rather or need to use a tool MacDefenderKiller is a good choice. BTW, it does remove several of the variants such as MacProtector. And it is Free.

I don't really doubt that MacDefenderKiller is not everything it says it is. It comes from what appears to be a legitimate web page, etc. But I won't be using it personally because I don't know exactly what it does. I know that it runs an AppleScript but it was compiled as a run only script so I'm unable to judge it's effectiveness. Certainly the developer is within his rights to do so to protect his work, but I would feel better about it if he at least provided a detailed description of what happens.

How many developers really give us that info or more make their apps open for examination ? I've been using the MacUpdate site since I got my first Mac and have never had any app I got from their site do any damage to my system.

I understand the disclaimer, but are the people who need this software really going to be able to understand any description the developer put out there ? Do we know the developer wouldn't respond to a request for such information if asked ? All I can say is I trust MacUpdate as much as I trust the Mac App Store ... they have too much to lose to NOT have tested this thing out before listing it.

Aaah! Help! Was just browsing MSN and "Apple Security Center" popped up and told me that I am totally infected. I called Apple and the tech advised that this has been happening for the past two weeks. He told me to buy the Virus Barrier Plus from Intego for $9.99, run it and it will delete the problem. Well - NO - didn't work. I even tried the free version. Both scanned and told me that the IMac is fine. I did find "MacProtector" in my applications so I dragged it to the trash. Also, I went to Activity Monitor and forced quit MacProtector. The irritating red shield at the top right is now gone but I'm afraid it'll come back based on previous posts. Does anyone know what else I should do. For now, the **** pop-ups have stopped but I don't know for how long.

Thanks.

Try this http://www.reedcorner.net/news.php/?p=138

and read this for more information on viruses, other malware etc

http://www.reedcorner.net/guides/macvirus/

and search this forum for MacDefender or Mac Protector or Apple Security Center. There have been a lot of threads and one of them will have the information you need.

Laverne's mom

lindafromsandy lake wrote:

Aaah! Help! Was just browsing MSN and "Apple Security Center" popped up and told me that I am totally infected. I called Apple and the tech advised that this has been happening for the past two weeks. He told me to buy the Virus Barrier Plus from Intego for $9.99, run it and it will delete the problem. Well - NO - didn't work. I even tried the free version. Both scanned and told me that the IMac is fine.

I'm surprised to hear that. My impression was that Intego was on top of this, but perhaps the signature has changed sufficiently to slip by now. You might want to let them know.

I did find "MacProtector" in my applications so I dragged it to the trash. Also, I went to Activity Monitor and forced quit MacProtector. The irritating red shield at the top right is now gone but I'm afraid it'll come back based on previous posts. Does anyone know what else I should do. For now, the **** pop-ups have stopped but I don't know for how long.

As far as we collectively have been able to determine you have done everything you need to for now. The most important thing for you to do going forward is to never enter your admin password to install something on your computer without knowing that it comes from a reputable source and what it will do once it's installed.

There are one or two files remaining in your Downloads folder that could start this cycle all over again if you don't follow the above advise, so you might want to trash those, as well. If you plan on helping Intego don't trash them until you've talked to them as they may want you to send one to them. Those files should be called "MacProtector.mpkg" and "anti-malware.zip" but could have new names.

Thank you Laverne I'll try that.

Thank you MadMacs0 i will try that also

Your welcome

🙂

FYI: Here's what "MacDefenderKiller" actually does:

First, it will look for the running process called "MacProtector, MacDefender or MacSecurity" and it will kill it by identifying the process number.

Secondly, it will then look for those same 3 items in your apps folder and remove them.

Third, it will remove any item in your downloads folder with the above names, even the installers or packages.

Lastly, it patches Safari's "Safe File" preference (which you can change back if you desire) so the malware can't come back in again. I would just use Google Chrome or Firefox, but that's a discussion for another day...

It puts all the malware junk in the trash for you to investigate and writes a report for you to see what actually happened.