thread, virus, flashback

If you have the latest apple java updates, have java disabled (or with the updates even if it isn't) I doubt you have flashback.

On the other hand gmail is being hacked all the time on the google side (my neighbor had that happen about a year ago). There are added (albeit sometimes inconvenient) securities you can add to a gmail account but I don't know what they are. Check your gmail settings.

Nici66 wrote:

Hi,

My computer sent an email to all of my contacts saying that I would urgently need help.

It was almost certainly not your computer that sent that e-mail.

The email account was then removed by Google. It was obviously a virus, worm or whatever.

Can it be that my iMac was infected by a virus?

No, there are no known viruses that will impact OS X, in fact, if your OS is completely up-to-date there is currently no known malware that will affect you.

I heard something about a virus called flashback. Could it be that my computer catched this virus?

It's not a virus (which can spread by itself to your computer and then to others without you doing anything), Flashback is a Trojan/Backdoor that is known to re-direct your browser to ad sites, but has never been shown to do anything else.

Check your e-mail "Sent" folder to see if that message is there. If it's not then they simply forged your e-mail address to send the e-mail(s) out. If it is there then they most likely hacked the password to your account, logged in and sent it from there. Contact Google to see if you can reactivate your account with a very strong password.