In the middle of posting a picture, facebook required that I sign back in. Facebook says I have a virus. It won't let me on again until I promise that I have run anti-virus software, and took me to the Apple site. I don't see any anti-virus programs on the apple site. Is this a hoax? I assume it's not because the address bar was a https: address.
MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.2)
Talk to Facebook. There are no OS X viruses.
Helpful Links Regarding Virus Protection
An excellent link to read is Tom Reed's Mac Malware Guide.
Also, visit The XLab FAQs and read Detecting and avoiding malware and spyware.
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using ClamXav.
pinksmink wrote:
Is this a hoax?
yes. anti-virus software isn't necessary to view Facebook.
Do yourself a favor and delete FaceBook then it will stop sending those false messages.
Allan
There have been many reports of this issue within the last couple of days. Facebook has not announced anything as far as I can tell, but I suspect it's a sequel of a recent attack on ths site. Whether genuine or not, the warning is false and you should ignore it. Whatever you do, don't download anything from a link in the page.
Linc Davis wrote:
There have been many reports of this issue within the last couple of days. Facebook has not announced anything as far as I can tell, but I suspect it's a sequel of a recent attack on ths site.
ars technica had this to say on Friday about the recent attack, sourcing the Facebook CSO.
This sort of thing actually happens fairly often, is not related to malware on your machine, and is probably not related to Friday's hacking of a few Facebook employees' computers. Your account probably got hacked and used to send spam, resulting in Facebook automatically blocking it.
See:
Facebook isn’t letting me log in and is telling me I have a virus!
And a couple more article's from today that seem to be related:
Facebook Hacked, Mobile Dev Watering Holes, and Mac Malware
facebook says I have a virus. Any advice?
