Activity monitor sending out massive amounts of data

Question

Level 1

49 points

Activity monitor sending out massive amounts of data

My activity monitor has been sending out and receiving a massive amount of data (ie. 9.81 GB out and 117.82 GB in). What in the world is causing this? Do I have some kind of virus or is my computer being used for cryptocurrency mining?

I am still on Sierra (os 10.12.6), I really don't want to upgrade my laptop just yet because it will brick all of my FCP 7 projects.

I have done all of the usual (ran Avast, and Malwarebytes. Zapped pRam, repaired permissions with disk utility, ran OnYX), but yet it is still doing this in fact getting worse.

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), macOS Sierra (10.12.6)

Posted on Oct 13, 2018 6:26 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Eric Root

Level 10

685,251 points

Oct 13, 2018 8:12 PM in response to mike welch

Despite what Activity Monitor shows, is your computer running normally? If so, despite the activity, there may not be a problem.

I would uninstall Avast. If things don't change, you can reinstall it.

You have so much 3rd party software running it is hard to suggest which one may be the problem Try quitting them and see if things improve.

Reply

Answer 2

mike welch Author

Level 1

49 points

Oct 13, 2018 7:49 PM in response to Eric Root

Eric,

Thanks for the reply. I have been using Avast for a while and would be reluctant to get rid of it. I have tried everything and this one is really good at catching stuff. I have mail shields and web shields that light up whenever anything suspicious happens. I will consider your suggestion but not quite sure yet.

Now with the latest in my discovery. We have been having connectivity issues in our house. I had to move my time machine so my room mate could use it as an access point. He is running an old pc with who knows what that is in there. Once I unplugged the time machine the Kernel_task stopped. So my theory is that his computer is probably mining Cryptocurrency and unable to penetrate my mac or there is something wrong with the time machine.

Here's my report.

EtreCheck version: 5.0.5 (5A016)

Report generated: 2018-10-12 22:13:02

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime: 3:28

Performance: Good

Problem: No problem - just checking

Major Issues:

Anything that appears on this list needs immediate attention.

More than one antivirus app - This machine has multiple antivirus apps installed.

Minor Issues:

These issues do not need immediate attention but they may indicate future problems.

Heavy RAM usage - This machine is using a large amount of RAM.

Apps crashing - There have been numerous app crashes.

Apps with heavy CPU usage - There have been numerous cases of apps with heavy CPU usage.

Clean up - There are orphan files that could be removed.

Unsigned files - There are unsigned software files installed. They appear to be legitimate but should be reviewed.

System modifications - There are a large number of system modifications running in the background.

32-bit Apps - This machine has 32-bits apps that may have problems in the future.

Hardware Information:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

MacBook Pro Model: MacBookPro11,2

1 2 GHz Intel Core i7 (i7-4750HQ) CPU: 4-core

16 RAM - Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1600 ok

BANK 1/DIMM0 - 8 GB DDR3 1600 ok

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 498

Video Information:

Intel Iris Pro - VRAM: 1536 MB

Color LCD 2880 x 1800

Drives:

disk0 - APPLE SSD SM0256F 251.00 GB (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

Internal PCI 5.0 GT/s x2 Serial ATA

disk0s1 - EFI (MS-DOS FAT32) [EFI] 210 MB

disk0s2 [Core Storage Container] 250.14 GB

disk1 - Macintosh HD (Journaled HFS+) 249.78 GB (221.85 GB used)

disk0s3 - Recovery HD (Journaled HFS+) [Recovery] 650 MB

Mounted Volumes:

disk1 - Macintosh HD 249.78 GB (27.67 GB free)

Journaled HFS+

Mount point: /

disk2s2 - T******************s 997.71 GB (13.51 GB free)

Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)

Disk Image

Mount point: /Volumes/T******************s

Network:

Interface en0: Wi-Fi

802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Interface en4: Bluetooth PAN

Interface bridge0: Thunderbolt Bridge

iCloud Quota: 1003 MB available

System Software:

macOS Sierra 10.12.6 (16G1510)

Time since boot: About a day

Configuration Files:

File /etc/sysctl.conf exists but not expected

/etc/hosts - Count: 16

Security:

System Status

Gatekeeper Enabled

System Integrity Protection Enabled

Unsigned Files:

Launchd: /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.avast.init.plist

Executable: /Applications/Avast.app/Contents/Backend/hub/init.sh