Has my macbook been hacked? :(

Question

Has my macbook been hacked? :(

I was threatened by this guy on a ivideochat.com (I wasn't doing anything bad, I promise 😀 ) and he said he could hack it and he threatened me that if I didn't show my body, he would hack my computer. I told him he was stupid because I've read that Macs are hard to hack and it's almost impossible with the security system, but then some guy argued with me and said macs are easy to hack, its just that no one would want to because its not much profit and that macs are just as easy to hack as PCs. I didn't believe him, but ever since that convo, I notice strange things with my mac.

Like for example,

-At random times, all my accounts (like facebook and aol) would randomly log out and ask me to log in again. So I don't press anything. I ignore it and close safari. I then would turn airport off then on and I would open safari and my accounts would be logged on still. So it seems like if someone were to be hacking my account, they are trying to get my login info.

-A moment ago, my cousin was on my laptop and my wifi disconnect and my comp wanted the password even though the password is saved already. Then I didn't put in the password. I just went to terminal to see how many users were on my mac, but as soon as I opened terminal, my screen went black for 10 seconds and then reappeared and my wifi was back to normal. So it seems like someone is trying to get my passwords or something.

-Other stuff, my mac is extremely when it comes to the internet. Slower than usual. It can't be the wifi because I have verizon fios which is super fast with all the computers in the house. For the past couple days, my mom's crappy Dell laptop (made in 2003) has been as fast as my mac which is crazy. 8O But today, my mom said that her computer was really slow, slower than usual. I'm wondering if someone is hacking through the verizon fios box. Like through the main IP address or whatever you call it.

Sorry for the long story, but can an expert help? Or someone who has encountered similar problems? 😕 I'm scared. I'm taking my mac to Apple tomorrow because this is crazy. 😠 And is there a program that can check for spyware or something for free? And that is safe?

Thank you.

Macbook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Jun 26, 2011 11:56 PM

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Answer 1

MGW

Level 7

27,047 points

Jun 27, 2011 6:18 AM in response to Jazziloveberry

If someone is threatening you, you should call the police. As for the strange things happening to your computer, I suggest you boot from your install disc and run

Disk Utility

1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.

2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)

Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.

3. Click the First Aid tab.

4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.

5. Select your Mac OS X volume.

6. Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.

Then reboot to your internal rive and Repair Permissions.

You can download ClamXav which is a virus checker, but it's extremely unlikely that you have a virus. ClamXav is safe.

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