Safari locked out by Malicious Virus Attack...

This virus message just popped up onto my screen on my Mac Desktop and was able to remove it by quitting Safari. I did not click on any links or let them take control of my computer. I was wondering if my personal information on my computer safe? Is there anyway for them to take my personal info without me giving it to them. The message is the same exact one the user constellation fan had posted in this thread above.

His happened to me two days ago. A pop up said a new Java update was available. Safari froze until I selected to update. ( Should have done a Force Quit then.) When I selected to Install the Java update, MacKeeper and MegaBackUp were installed. When I did Force Quits on these and trashed them, which was not easy, then the pop ups started like mentioned above to call for support, etc. I did not call but started cleaning up things and changing passwords. Also, my default search engine was changed from Google to Yahoo in Safari. Still cannot get it changed back. Finally found this page. Many thanks to all the suggestions above.

Is there a good Virus system that will protect against these Popups etc?

Texas Bear wrote:

Is there a good Virus system that will protect against these Popups etc?

No, because they're not viruses. They're pop-ups. There are no viruses currently in the wild that can do any damage to OS X. Therefore, anti-virus programs are useless at this time. When viruses like the kind that affect Windows become a problem for Macs, that will change. Mac users need to be vigilant against malware/adware, but those are downloaded by you and installed by you. Meaning, there is no program or application out there that can prevent you from downloading something you shouldn't from some place you shouldn't.

A number of replies above help me better understand what the problems was. Why was loaded on my computer I will call it malware for lack of a better term. The reason I couldn't log into some web sites (which I mentioned above) was because to be safe I had checked to many items like never allow pop ups. So in being overly safe, I shot my self in the foot. :-)

IF a friend allowed them access to her computer, what should she do?

SHe went as far as the payment then backed out...

shes really freaking out and I will try the methods above to remove it from her mac in a minute.

If she did not give them any credit card information she should be ok. '

These steps mostly from above helped me:

1. if Safari is locked or frozen by a pop up Ad, then click somewhere on the screen outside the Safari screen so Finder shows in the upper left of the screen. (Actually you may not have to have to go to Finder to do the following, but is lets you know it is a Safari problem.) Then go to the Apple icon (Apple drop down Menu) in the upper left of the screen and select the Force Quit button and Force Quit Safari.

The following also works to Force Quit:

Press command + option + esc keys together at the same time. Wait.

When Force Quit window appears, select Safari if not already.

Press Force Quit button at the bottom of the window. Wait. Safari will quit.

2. ReStarting Safari holding down the Shift key may help clear up some problems.

Also under the Safari drop down Menu you can Select Clear History, which may remove some problems. It helps to give you a clean start.

3. Under the Safari name at the top left select it and select Preferences.

Then Select Extensions and uninstall any you do not need or recognize.

Then Select Privacy: Select “Allow from websites I visit.”

While you are in Privacy you may want to Remove all Website Date, which may clean out the offending Pop Ups from Cookies, OR first select Details under the Remove All and it will show which sites have Cookies you have stored. Delete any you do not need or recognize. Below that you can Select the Prompt for each website one time only. (This give some control of who you allow to store cookies. Optional: At the bottom of the page you can select Ask websites not to track me. (This can prevent some sites from helping you. But to start cleaning things up, you may want to select Ask, until all other things are working properly, then un-select it. )

4. Under Privacy if you select Always Block, you will not be able to log-into Web sites that require a name and password. So you cannot be to restrictive. You may want to select it while cleaning thing up however.

5. Under Safari drop down menu and Preferences select Security.

Check Warn when visiting a fraudulent website.

Do not select block pop-up windows or it will keep some sites from working.

6. ReStarting the computer holding down the Shift until it starts, which is Safe Mode and clears out some trash that has built up, may help for some things. Do this after doing some of the things above.

These are somewhat restrictive, but may be needed to clear things up.

THanks!

Texas Bear wrote:

If she did not give them any credit card information she should be ok.

This is not true. If she allowed criminals access to her computer, whether she gave them credit card information or not, she should consider her computer compromised. She needs to wipe the entire hard drive down to factory settings, then reinstall the operating system from scratch. She should back up all her personal files first, because once you erase the drive, everything is gone.

Don't ever tell someone that they're fine if they allowed strangers remote access to their computer. That's a dangerous, dangerous lie.

Pinkstone, You are correct and I stand corrected. Thanks. When I read her comments I did not recall that she had given access to here computer since she had not given her credit card information.

And I will add, she should change any web sites passwords that she accesses with passwords. Banks, Credit Cards, etc. Possibly canceling credit cards for safety. (When my problem started I also had a card hacked. I did not think it came from the computer malware, but its timing was just after the computer problem, so it could have been. ) Thanks again.

TThis helped me so much! got a pop up saying my Mac had been infected and my security was at risk tonight. These instructions were great and they worked for me. Thank you!

We have people responding who are at different points of understanding. So people who did not know they could force quit Safari are happy. And they post they are happy. But what about the repetitive nature of the pop-up? And what if it seems to happen when I am on a specific blog site of mine.

i deleted all of my cookies, emptied my cache/', force quit safari. And the problem has come back.

I had a similar incident, but with Chrome. While using the latest version of Chrome in the Incognito mode, a new window opened saying malware was detected and to click what looked like a pop-up window to remove it. I run Sophos for Mac with Live Protection enabled. Chrome had AdBlock Plus and Ghostery running, with all trackers seemingly blocked.

I immediately force quit Chrome, reopened it seemingly without incident, and cleared the following browsing data:

• Cookies and other site and plug-in data;
• Cached files and images;
• Autofill form data;
• Hosted app data; and
• Content licenses.

I then ran updated Malwarebytes and ran it. I then updated Sophos for Mac and ran a full scan.. Both found nothing. I re-opened Chrome, visited several legit websites, and the incident as not reoccurred.

I was thinking surfing the net by booting my Mac from a Linux Live DVD. As I understand it, the Live DVD is read-only, so it is impossible to write malware onto it. Think that would solve the problem?

I must add that I did not see the same "Action Required" window that many seem to have seen. It was very similar, though,

This incident was not caused by any kind of malware. It was simply a scam website. If the message is no longer showing in Chrome, no further action is needed beyond avoiding the site that caused the pop-up to appear.