help?
iOS 7, I dont know
You are posting to a 4 year old thread. We know nothing of your issue or system. I suggest you start a new thread after reading this tip: Writing an effective Apple Support Communities question
What makes you think you have a virus?
Helpful Links Regarding Malware 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.
See these Apple articles:
Mac OS X Snow Leopard and malware detection
OS X Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
OS X Mountain Lion- Protect your Mac from malware
If you require anti-virus protection I recommend using VirusBarrier Express 1.1.6 or Dr.Web Light both from the App Store. They're both free, and since they're from the App Store, they won't destabilize the system. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for these recommendations.)
I got the fake FBI warning. then lost my entire itunes library. haven't had an os update in a long time. system is slow. tried to re-install osx mountain lion twice. doesn't seem to do anything.
I have what I want backed up. once I re-boot, I will carefully transfer stuff so as not to re-infect.I appreciate any help you can offer.
thanks
Did you respond to the fake email? Or did you just receive the fake warning? This is not a virus but on the Mac it is a phishing scam. Do not reply or respond to it in any way or agree to send them money.
See: FBI “Ransomware” Phishing Scam Affects Mac Users – How To Bypass.
I was under the impression that I don't need any additional anti-virus protection so long as I am careful. I am fairly certain I picked it up while streaming movies on a pirating site, one of the more popular ones. I don't intend to do anything like that again, so I shouldn't need to heavily protect. I believe the osx updates and installed system will protect it from infection with typical net surfing, etc. I don't use the web for anything financial or identity sensitive content, so anything on my hard drive is purely for entertainent.
Should I be concerned otherwise?
I really don't know since your usage is questionable. There are no known viruses in the wild affecting OS X, but you can't overlook something new in the air. But you frequent pirate sites that are known to be loaded with files full of junk. Mostly they affect Windows machine.
I suggest you read what I posted earlier regarding malware.
it locked my browser for a bit. it was not an email. I read up on it, but don't remember all the details other than I needed to get rid of it. I didn't get what I needed from it, and just let it fall to the wayside. I do know I have something on here I don't want, and would simply like to return it to the way it was when bought. I have looked into it from time to time over the last couple months, only to hit a dead end and give up. but I really would like my computer to run like new, whereas now, it is slow, bogged down on something I cannot locate and stop, and just runs very poorly.
thank you, again for your help
Well, if you want to erase and install here's how it is done:
Install or Reinstall Mavericks, Lion/Mountain Lion from Scratch
Be sure you backup your files to an external drive or second internal drive because the following procedure will remove everything from the hard drive.
Boot to the Recovery HD:
Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the COMMAND and R keys until the menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears. Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
Erase the hard drive:
1. Select Disk Utility from the main menu and click on the Continue button.
2. After DU loads select your startup volume (usually Macintosh HD) from the
left side list. Click on the Erase tab in the DU main window.
3. Set the format type to Mac OS Extended (Journaled.) Optionally, click on
the Security button and set the ZeroData option to one-pass. Click on
the Erase button and wait until the process has completed.
4. Quit DU and return to the main menu.
Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks: Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks and click on the Install button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible
because it is three times faster than wireless.
outstanding! this is exactly what I needed, and am not sure why I have looked into this several times before finding this.
thank you. I will do this now.
Just to add to what Kappy has said... You're wasting your time. That FBI "virus" is just a web-based scam. There's no actual malware involved, so no need to erase the hard drive. See:
FBI ransomware “virus” rampant
I suspect I'm way too late to stop you at this point, but hopefully this knowledge will save you from future hassles. You'll spend a lot of time erasing hard drives if you do this every time some scam site pop-up appears.
you are not too late. I saw something shiney and was distracted yet again, and still have done nothing about it.
do you have any feedback/advice on what might be slowing my system down, why my itunes was wiped out, I have not ben prompted for an osx update in over two months.....and, I remember reading about the scam and that is a malware and it needs to be removed and explains a bunch of technical jargon way above my pay grade.
I am certain that I am "infected" with something I cannot shake. I have no apps or programs running aside from a browser and I have system problems and freeze ups.
I will try to find the info on the scam and the malware involved with it.
any advice in the meantime is greatly appreciated.
I read the info you posted. it is not the same I have read before, but similar. what I read suggests doing something to wipe it out, but not something that costs money, or an anti-virus program for sale, etc.....so it seems fairly legit. as I said before, I intend to find the info I read before about the scam and what needs doing. maybe you wouldn't mind taking a look at it and seeing if it is accurate. I am ready to do anything to get this machine running like it should. I like mac, and have recently switched from a pc, and I am really looking forward to seeing why I spent $1000 on my macbook pro.
Whatever is going on, it's not any kind of infection. This FBI ransomware scam is just a scam. Anywhere that you have read that this requires wiping the machine or calling it malware is not a reliable source for technical information, and should be discounted in the future. Regarding other kinds of malware, note that Mountain Lion is not currently susceptible to any known malware. It has built-in protection against all of it. See my Mac Malware Guide for more information.
As for the problem, I can't say much without more information. Regarding performance issues, see my Mac Performance Guide as a start.
When you say "iTunes was wiped out," what exactly does that mean? What happened, in as much detail as possible?
If you're still running Mountain Lion, I don't believe that there has been an OS X update for that system in two months, and there probably won't be any further updates (beyond security updates) for Mountain Lion at this point. If you have upgraded to Mavericks, the first OS X update in two months just appeared yesterday. Are you receiving upgrade notices through the App Store for apps and other things?
One final thing you can do to help us help you out is to get us some information about what third-party processes you've got running. First, go to System Preferences -> Users & Groups and check the Login Items list. What items are shown there?
Next, look in the following folders:
~/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchAgents
/Library/LaunchDaemons
(If you’re not sure how to locate a folder from a path, see Locating files from paths.)
What is in each of these folders? You can easily give us a list by selecting all files in each folder, choosing Edit -> Copy, and pasting into a message here, which will paste in a list of files. (It will not attach the files themselves.)
It won't let me erase and I've tried them all but it keeps saying failed
I have a virus. I would like to wipe hard drive clean and re-boot osx. how do I do that?
