Have I been hacked?

A good place to start would be here with Apples directions for removing MacDefender (which has gone under a number of different names) http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4650

Also read here about information about viruses and malware. http://www.reedcorner.net/guides/macvirus/

Since you already have Sophos installed you might want to update it. But if you don't plan on using it, you could just get rid of it. If it isn't updated it isn't helping, and might be causing problems. A search on this forum will give you information about it as well.

ClamXav is a free av program which has been recommended . MacKeeper is not recommended. There is one which is not a trojan but it does advertise via popups and can trick you into installing it, so it is not advised.

laverne's mom

Message was edited by: laverne's mom

I'm sure you've also checked that your firewall is active:

System Preferences > Security > Firewall

Bob

your welcome and

http://www.apple.com/support/feedback/ is one place to provide feedback to Apple.

You might also want to look into whether or not McAfee is helping or not. Again, I don't have personal experience with it, but haven't read much that was positive.

laverne's mom

🙂

I'm sure you've also checked that your firewall is active

Why should he activate the firewall? It's of no use in this situation.

Would be nice if there was a direct route thru which you could tell Apple about these things?!

There is, but there's nothing to tell. All that happened, if your description is accurate, is that you ran into some deceptive popups and redirects -- a common occurence. I don't see where you mentioned that you checked your downloads folder for any unwanted files. You should do that. You should also consider installing an ad blocker such as GlimmerBlocker, which will make the whole web-surfing experience immensely better. That's optional. No other action is called for, especially not activating the firewall.

Hi Andy

I agree with Linc - just redirects & pop-up ad windows from the webcric site. Nothing you've mentioned sounds concerning unless you later opened &/or installed something which was downloaded.

The same webcric site with say the adblock extension for safari = no ads, no redirects.

Seperately -If you get an offer of a new/updated & necessary plugin or codec for watching sporting events or other content - be suspicious.

The firewall is one of those topics where it's safe to say opinions vary!

Since you have a portable computer and you might take it from place to place and link to unknown networks, having it turned on is a sensible precaution. No doubt others will give you completely contrary opinions. Read what they have to say and make your own decision.

My firewall is firmly turned ON

Bob

You're missing the point that Linc was making.

What occurred could not possibly have been prevented by having the firewall on.

Unless, of course, you block all incoming traffic on port 80, but then, you wouldn't be doing much surfing, either.

But the firewall? What's wrong with having it on? I was surprised it was not on by fault, but I checked a couple of the other machin around at it looks like Off is the default state?

Yes, that's the default, and it should stay off in most circumstances.

The firewall does only one thing: it blocks incoming network connections to applications that you designate. The only plausible circumstance in which you might want that would be the following:

Your portable Mac is sometimes on a trusted network, at home or at work, where it provides services such as File Sharing or Printer Sharing to other trusted clients. At other times, the Mac is on an untrusted network such as a public WiFi hotspot, where you don't want others on the same network to have access to those services. Now, you could just turn the services off when you go to the hotspot, but it's a little easier to activate the firewall and set it to block all incoming connections. That will allow you to function as a wireless client, while denying access to sharing services.

What the firewall will not do is protect you from malware. It doesn't filter web traffic, and it doesn't stop your browser, or any other application, from making outgoing connections, which is what malware would do. In the unlikely event that you installed some sort of trojan that listened for incoming connections, your router would block them (unless they were coming from the local network.)

Since you have a portable computer and you might take it from place to place and link to unknown networks, having it turned on is a sensible precaution.

As I wrote above, it may make sense to have it on when you're on an untrusted network, if you have services enabled. It makes no sense to have it on when you're on a network where you want to provide services. If there are any services you don't want to provide on the trusted network, disable them. No need for a firewall then.

Last time I went to Lords it was Ceylon vs England, who won this time?