Q: what is the best security app for maverick

I believe you just got scammed. PC Health Line is not for Macs. The best security software for your computer is in the space between your ears. OS X has its own anti-malware software built-in. If you keep your computer upgraded properly then you will always have the most current protection.

EMail Spoofing

Caller ID Spoofing

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

  OS X Mavericks- Protect your Mac from malware

  About file quarantine in OS X

If you require anti-virus protection Thomas Reed recommends using ClamXAV. (Thank you to Thomas Reed for this recommendation.)

From user Joe Bailey comes this equally useful advice:

The facts are:

1. There is no anti-malware software that can detect 100% of the malware out there.

2. There is no anti-malware that can detect anything targeting the Mac because there

     is no Mac malware in the wild, and therefore, no "signatures" to detect.

3. The very best way to prevent the most attacks is for you as the user to be aware that

     the most successful malware attacks rely on very sophisticated social engineering

     techniques preying on human avarice, ****, and fear.

4. Internet popups saying the FBI, NSA, Microsoft, your ISP has detected malware on

    your computer is intended to entice you to install their malware thinking it is a

    protection against malware.

5. Some of the anti-malware products on the market are worse than the malware

    from which they purport to protect you.

6. Be cautious where you go on the internet.

7. Only download anything from sites you know are safe.

8. Avoid links you receive in email, always be suspicious even if you get something

    you think is from a friend, but you were not expecting.

9. If there is any question in your mind, then assume it is malware.

You didn't call Verizon; you called a fake tech-support scam, and the person to whom you gave access to your computer is a criminal.

If you know or suspect that a hostile intruder has either had physical access to it, or has been able to log in remotely, then there are some steps you should take to make sure that the computer is safe to use.

First, depending on the circumstances, computer tampering may be a crime, a civil wrong, or both. If there's any chance that the matter will be the subject of legal action, then you should do nothing at all without consulting a lawyer or the police. The computer would be the principal evidence in such a case, and you don't want to contaminate that evidence.

Running any kind of "anti-virus" software is pointless. If I broke into a system and wanted to leave a back door, I could do it in a way that would be undetectable by those means—and I don't pretend to any special skill as a hacker. You have to assume that any intruder can do the same. Commercial keylogging software—which has legitimate as well as illegitimate uses—won't be recognized as malware, because it's not malware.

The only way you can be sure that the computer is not compromised is to erase at least the startup volume and restore it to something like the status quo ante. The easiest approach is to recover the entire system from a backup that predates the attack. Obviously, that's only practical if you know when the attack took place, and it was recent, and you have such a backup. You will lose all changes to data, such as email, that were made after the time of the snapshot. Some of those changes can be restored from a later backup.

If you don't know when the attack happened, or if it was too long ago for a complete rollback to be feasible, then you should erase and install OS X. If you don't already have at least two complete, independent backups of all data, then you must make them first. One backup is not enough to be safe.

When you restart after the installation, you'll be prompted to go through the initial setup process for a new computer. That’s when you transfer the data from a backup in Setup Assistant.

Select only users in the Setup Assistant dialog—not Applications, Other files and folders, or Computer & Network Settings. Don't transfer the Guest account, if it was enabled.

Reinstall third-party software from original media or fresh downloads—not from a backup, which may be contaminated.

Unless you were the target of an improbably sophisticated attack, this procedure will leave you with a clean system. If you have reason to think that you were the target of a sophisticated attack, then you need expert help.

That being done, change all Internet passwords and check all financial accounts for unauthorized transactions. Do this  after the system has been secured, not before.

Maurice Allsopp wrote:

 

Today I had  what I gather was a "spoofing" incident on my telephone. My landline phone called me using my personal name as the "caller ID". I found out through the internet, this is referred to as "spoofing".

There are electronics available which can make a call appear to come from any number and callerID desired. The FTC has not found any way to prevent this and are offering a reward for anybody that can provide them with the technology to stop it. But I don't see how that would relate to your computer.

I contacted my phone provider ( Verizon). They asked if I used the same phone line for both the computer and telephone. Which I do. They ask permission to view my computer. I gave them over the internet, access to my computer. They checked my "Terminal" and said I had 3 different "addresses" being used. They connected me to their security person, who said I had to have the situation corrected. They would do it with PC HEALTH LINE, for $79.99.

None of this sound correct or good. How can you be certain you were speaking with Verizon? This doesn't sound like a service they would provide in any way.

Terminal is the name of an application, not anything on your computer and three different "addresses" means nothing. House address, IP address, MAC address? That was just tech gibberish to make it sound like they found something wrong.

I'm not positive that PC HealthLine is Windows only as their site claims they "PROVIDE SUPPORT FOR ALL BRANDED DESKTOPS AND LAPTOPS" but I can't find anything that says specifically Apple.

At this point I would not use your computer on the Internet at all. They could have put most anything on it since you gave them permission. If so then it's probably sending a lot of privacy information about you to someone who can sell it to other cybercriminals who can use it for almost anything. I would contact the police to see if they have somebody trained in Mac forensics and able to analyze your computer to see exactly what's going on. If that's not possible then you need to backup your user data, erase your hard drive, install OS X and all applications from original source and then carefully restore your important user files from backup.

Watch all your financial accounts daily for any unusual activity and change passwords on all critical accounts.