Viruses

Natgeo72 wrote:

I downloaded the Sophos antivirus program and it found a file that wasn't supposed to be there -- and deleted it.

It might be extremely useful to the community if you could provide us with details of this since there isn't any well known malware in distribution that could cause this.

Check your Sophos log for:

Infection Name

File Name

Path to the file.

Natgeo72 wrote:

Any idea how I would do that?

I guess I would start by selecting "View Scan Log" from the Sophos Scan menu or typing Command-Shift-L.

After the log opens in the Console app, type the word "threat" without the quotes in the Filter box at the upper right corner of the window where it says "Strint Matching".

Then click your cursor anywhere in the results and type Command-A, Command-C to copy the contents to your clipboard and come back here and type Command-V into a reply to paste the results.

Natgeo72 wrote:

I tried to do what you say, but the View Scan Log shows there's nothing there. I already deleted the file, so perhaps that's why it's not showing anything?

No, deleting it would not have any effect. It must be in one of the other logs.

In the right hand Log List column you should see under

Sophos Anti-Virus

Scans

a listing of several scan catagories. The one you are looking at is probably under Scan Local Drives and there could be more than one.

It could also be contained in one of the other catagories. Click on the gray triangle next to each catagory so that the triangle is pointing down to see the contents of each.

Try looking for "threat" in any log you find. That should get you what you want.

I would not advise thinking that the matter is resolved without doing anything else. It's extremely common for Macs to have malware that anti-virus software will find. Almost in every case, that's Windows malware, generally attached to junk email or something along those lines. You've got something going on beyond malware, and you really need to examine the security of all your online accounts.

Lord Ludovic Grosvenor wrote:

It is impossible to get a virus on any apple device.

That is a dangerous and incorrect statement.

• Older Macs and indeed Apple ][ computers had some of the earliest viruses known. See this article.
• While there are currently no known viruses for Mac OS X in the wild, proof of concept viruses have been known to exist.
• While they are not viruses in the strictest sense of the word, other forms of malware such as trojans do exist in the wild that affect Macs.
• If a Mac is running Windows - either in Boot Camp or under a virtualization such as Fusion or Parallels, it can be affected by viruses.

Mac users need to be educated and aware of malware threats. Telling them it is impossible is a poor idea.