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MacBook Air infected.

edited January 2023 in Off-Topic
Rat feces. "Bing" redirect. "Search Marquis." I've looked at a few offered step-by-step solutions. So many damn steps. I don't have enough bread crumbs to find my way home.... Downloaded an antivirus tool. AVAST. It did not work. MALWAREBYTES detected some crap and quarantined it, but that did not remove the virus.

Evil, sub-human spunk-lickers do this sort of thing to other people.

I've got an appt. at the Apple Store. Always go in there only when I truly must. My other misadventure with this laptop involved a broken or corrupted update, one of Apple's own. Froze the damn computer. Their idea of "fixing" it was to erase everything, putting it back to factory specifications. ("Why shouldn't you be happy about that?!" Shit.)

Comments

  • bump for more visibility
  • This sort of thing is exactly why you buy a small portable hard drive and every week or so plug it into your computer and make a backup. Cheap insurance.

    I believe that I suggested this the last time also.
  • edited January 2023
    i told you so, oj. so sympathetic. i'm not the problem. the hackers are the problem. they suck satan's tool in hell. i figured out a solution, which is not really a fix, because it does not remove the problem. Uninstall infected Google Chrome, and use my alternate, which I downloaded through my CLEAN Safari. I don't prefer the way Safari works. It's not friendly, clunky. ...So, I imported my bookmarks and favorites tabs into the BRAVE browser I recalled using from some years ago. After many hours of use, they still show no symptoms or signs of being compromised.
  • Well, since you evidently have everything under control I guess that there's no need for you to back anything up, as we mere mortals have to do. Sorry for the intrusion.
  • I own two chromebooks and haven't had any viruses yet-fingers crossed !
  • carew388 said:

    I own two chromebooks and haven't had any viruses yet-fingers crossed !

    I hope you don't, ever.

  • edited January 2023
    Interesting discussion. Always believed Apple was immune from virus attacks until an episode about 6 months ago. Fortunately, still had a “clean” backup file stored in Apple’s cloud from a month earlier. So deleted all content (taking the ipad Air back to its native / new condition). Then installed the saved backup. Worked for a few months - then some warning signs of another attack. That time I started a reasonably priced Norton subscription. No further problems. When traveling and using hotel wi-fi it sends a message that it has “secured” the unprotected wi-fi connection for me to use without worry. Nice touch - but I still rely on my cellular hotspot for any financial transactions when on the toad.

    I’m afraid all of this points to growing sophistication on the part of the scammers.
  • I didn't go into this earlier because the "average" person doesn't want or need to go to this trouble: I always divide my hard drive into two "logical" drives: this means that while there is only one physical hard drive, it is partitioned into two sections which are completely separate from a software standpoint.

    I place the operating system and all associated system files onto one partition, and all other files (user files) are kept separate on the second partition. I generate a very large number of user files of all types, including data bases, spreadsheets, technical drawings, and of course lots of graphics files- primarily pictures. All of this has been accumulating for some 25 years, so there's lots of stuff, and there's no way that I can afford to lose all of that.

    Malicious damage is most likely to affect the operating system. By keeping the OS separate from the user files, even if the OS is compromised it is extremely unlikely to cause any damage to the user files.

    Weekly, I back up both hard drive partitions onto a small external portable hard drive. That portable drive is then taken to our weekend house, where it is copied onto another computer, so then there are two potential backup systems.

    Should the computer drive become compromised, or even totally fail due to a physical failure, very little will be lost. With respect to physical failure, keep in mind that a hard drive is a motor-driven set of stacked magnetic discs, with a set of small arms (think of a phonograph arm) which is constantly moving extremely rapidly back and forth over the discs.

    In short, a disc drive is a very hard-working piece of hardware with several rapidly moving parts, with bearings which wear. They can and do sometimes just totally fail from wear and tear.

    If your computer is used for serious work, or contains user files which you really don't want to lose, then backing it up is like wearing a seat belt while driving- cheap insurance. Why someone who had experienced such a loss wouldn't bother to do anything to help prevent more of the same is very difficult for me to understand.
  • @Old_Joe: I use an external HD for backups and, as you suggest, these drives have about a 3-year lifespan. At least that's been my experience. I just replaced two Seagate drives bought about 4 years ago.
  • edited January 2023
    Guess I’m dumb. Apple backs up my entire system automatically to their hard drive in the cloud. And, I make secondary backups of my DejaOffice files by email - sending them to my most secure email server. I’ll admit you guys’ method is even safer - but I don’t get along very well with disks / add-on devices / storing and retrieving physical items. Probably wouldn’t work better for me than what I do now.

    * Must add here that all files are kept current on at least 3 separate Apple devices. Wouldn’t sleep well if it weren’t for that 3rd level of backup.
  • Anybody use Carbonite for online backup? Seems pretty professional organization. They claim if you get infected, the virus will not get backed up to or can be reversed
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