Fighting Viruses and Malware on Mac computers

In April of this year I realized that my hiatus in the fight against computer viruses and malware had come to an end.  For four lovely years I didn't pore over websites describing the effects of the latest worms or trojans.  I didn't run any lengthy scans or poke around editing the registry of a PC.  It was nice while it lasted, but that time has passed.  Mac owners now need to pay attention to the evils of viruses and malware.

My "wake-up call" came in the form of MacKeeper popup windows like the screen prints below.  (Rest assured that these images are NOT linked to a MacKeeper site and therefore pose no danger.)
 

If you see popups like these, close them immediately.

If you see MacKeeper advertisements on a website, close your browser window and avoid that site in the future.

Do not install Mackeeper, advised the Apple Support Forum on March 23, 2012.

Symptoms

MacKeeper popup screens appeared on my husband's MacBook several times a day.  My husband also reported that he spent way too much time watching the colorful spinning wheel (the Apple equivalent of the hourglass on PCs).

Theory #1, or going down the garden path

The computer is just too old.  Thinking there wasn't much point in spending a lot of money to fix a four-year old computer with an expired warranty, I bought my husband a new MacBook Pro.  However, the new MacBook Pro did not bring the expected improvements.  Even with its newer architecture and four times the RAM of the old machine, this new one was only marginally faster. Worse yet, the popups persisted and watching the spinning wheel was still a major part of everyday use.  That's when I realized that something funky was going on.

I also realized I had spent a huge pile of money in the Apple store for no good reason!  Despite the fact that I had unpacked and used the new computer (see More Adventures with Migration Assistant), I marched it back to the store and returned it.  Did you know that Apple will give you a full refund -- no restocking fees! -- if you return a computer within 14 days of purchase? 

Theory #2, or waking up to reality

The computer has a virus.  By now I was convinced that I had transferred some sort of virus or malware from the old computer to the new one.  That would explain spinning wheel syndrome and the tendency for the old MacBook to get slower and slower until it was rebooted - sometimes more than once a day.

As I read more and more technology sites, I learned that the reason Macs didn't get viruses in the past had nothing to do with their physical construction or the Mac operating system.  Hackers just were not motivated to write nasty, disruptive programs for such a small portion of the computer market.  Now that more than 10% of computer users have Macs, the appeal to hackers is growing.

Nothing proves that fact more than the rampant Flashback, a trojan reported in April 2012 to have infected over 600,000 Macs globally, half of those in the US alone! 

Mac Flashback Malware: What It Is and How to Get Rid of It (FAQ) -  CNet, April 5, 2012
Widespread Virus Proves Macs Are No Longer Safe From Hackers -  New York Times, April 6, 2012

Apple has been recommending anti-virus software for quite a while.  In 2008 Apple published a technical note on their support forum recommending "widespread use of multiple anti-virus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult."  This statement was picked up by all the major technology media as well as mainstream news publishers like the Washington Post.

Apple Suggests Mac Users Install Antivirus Software - CNet, December 1, 2008
Apple:  Mac Users Should Get Antivirus Software - Washington Post, December 1, 2008

By the way, if you still need to obtain and install an antivirus program for your Mac, the article below is an excellent resource.

Antivirus Utilities and Recommendations for OS X - CNet, January 13, 2011.

The antivirus program that caught my eye was Sophos Antivirus, "an enterprise-level virus scanner that was just released as a free home version."  It runs in the background without hogging system resources.  It scans files prior to download and notifies you if it finds any danger. 

Solution: antivirus and adblocker software 

Getting back to my own computer issues, I downloaded and ran Sophos Antivirus. It found and quarantined three malware files that I promptly deleted.

Interestingly, MacKeeper was not one of the quarantined files.  That fact sent me off to do additional internet reading.  I learned that MacKeeper is indeed considered malware because it chews up system resources, doesn't do what it advertises, and is nearly impossible to get rid of.  In the article below, the Apple Support Forum says "MacKeeper can be regarded as highly invasive malware that can de-stablize your operating system." 

Do not install Mackeeper, Apple Support Forum, March 23, 2012.

Thankfully, I concluded that my husband's MacBook wasn't infected with MacKeeper.  Sophos Antivirus hadn't identified it, and it didn't appear on the hard drive as an installed application.  So far, so good, but I still needed to get rid of the MacKeeper popup nuisance.  That challenge inspired still more internet reading, this time about the elimination of popups. 

On the Apple Support Forum I discovered adblockers  -- programs will prevent popup advertisements and will also suppress some sidebar ads.  Glimmerblocker is an adblocker specifically for Mac OS X.  Apple also has an Adblock extension for Safari.  I downloaded and installed those as well.

I am happy to report that my husband's MacBook ran somewhat better after I added Sophos Antivirus, Glimmerblocker and the Adblock extension for Safari.  It took quite a bit of research, but in the end my solution did indeed prevent the MacKeeper popups and alleviated the spinning wheel syndrome. 

The computer's improved functioning would allow me a little more time to figure out what to do next.  After all, it was still a four year old computer.  Could I persuade my husband to use it for another year?  Should I add some RAM or do a hardware analysis in the meantime?  What would Apple's new line of MacBooks would be like? Actually, Apple would be making those announcements in a few more months.

Yes, dear readers, the saga will continue...

Related posts:

Migration Assistant Misery, September 5, 2009
More Adventures with Migration Assistant, April 9, 2012 



© 2012, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

2010 Vigil for Immigration Justice at Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship

Here's a post that I almost forgot about!  It describes an event two years ago, but the information is still relevant.

On May 1, 2010, Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship joined many churches across the country in a prayer vigil for immigrant justice. I was one of three presenters. I focused on Irish immigration of the nineteenth century while the other two speakers dealt with more recent events.  Jean Montrevil talked about the New Sanctuary Movement, and Confesor Linares, pastor of First Mennonite Church in Brooklyn, described his experience as an immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

My presentation appears in green text below.  I concluded my talk by singing Mick Moloney's arrangement of McNally's Row of Flats.

My First NYTTS Annual Show

On Saturday, June 2, I attended the New York Turtle and Tortoise Society's Annual Show.  Here, NYTTS members exhibit their pets and receive awards for the quality of their animals as well as the quality of their husbandry.

What fun it was to see all the various turtles and tortoises, some wandering freely in the enclosed playground at the Village Community School where the show was held.

Some tortoises posed for pictures.

Pinta Island Tortoise now extinct

Updated July 3, 2012

Turtle Tidbit #7 reports the June 24, 2012, death of Lonesome George, the last of the Pinta Island tortoises (Chelonoidis abingdoni) that lived in the Galagapos Islands of Equador. Though it is tragic to see a species become extinct, George's death was not in vain. His situation - being the last of his kind - simulated "an extraordinary effort by the government of Ecuador to restore not only tortoise populations throughout the archipelago but also to improve the status of other endangered and threatened species," says Galapagos National Park Public Relations.

The Plight of Red Eared Sliders

Dinky, admiring his own reflection.  Isn't he pretty?

In honor of World Turtle Day, I want to focus on the problems associated with the breed of turtle that I own: the Red Eared Slider (Latin name: Trachemys scripta elegans, but commonly abbreviated as RES). These turtles, the size of a small coin as hatchlings, are widely sold by street vendors, flea markets, Chinatown tourist shops, carnivals and fairs. Buyers are rarely aware RES live 70+ years and grow as big as 12-inch dinner plates. Those who buy the cute little green turtles receive no information -- or wrong information -- about their care, even though raising a healthy turtle requires very specific elements and becomes more expensive as the turtle gets bigger and bigger.

Performing at the 2011 Catskills Irish Arts Week

2011 was a big year for the my Irish band, the Washington Square Harp and Shamrock Orchestra. The release of our first CD in March 2011 (see the sidebar on the right) brought us lots of performance opportunities. In this video you will see highlights of our performance at Catskills Irish Arts Week last summer. We were thrilled to perform at this prestigious US Irish music festival which has "the largest faculty (65 instructors) teaching the largest number of classes (120) of any summer school devoted to Irish traditional music and dance in the U.S." (Earle Hitchner, The Green Hills of the Catskills, The Wall Street Journal, July 6, 2011)




This 5-minute video contains snippets of three songs from our CD. You'll see me on your left up there...  Close-ups (at 2.53 and 4:11) reveal I'm having lots of fun!

Many thanks to Albany photographer Timothy Raab for tirelessly documenting the music at Catskills Irish Arts Week year after year. Tim's entire collection of 2011 CIAW videos can be viewed HERE.



© 2012, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement

More Adventures with Migration Assistant

Since my 2009 experience with Apple's Migration Assistant utility, I have had two more occasions to use this seductive tool. It promises so much, but I've come to believe that using Migration Assistant is rarely as easy as Apple makes you think it will be.  Here's a brief recap of my last two adventures with Migration Assistant, along with some advice and lessons learned.

Mourning Doves at Menno House

Last summer mourning doves nested on a windowsill of Menno House.  Manager Rachel Smith recorded the development of the squabs (that's what you call mourning dove chicks) from hatchlings to fledglings. 

Video by Rachel Smith

Did you know . . .

• Mourning doves mate for life
• Mourning doves often reuse their own nests or the nests of other birds, even squirrels
• Both parents feed their young with "crop milk" produced by glands in their crops
• The young squabs fledge (fly from the nest) after only 14 days, but parents continue to care them for another 2 weeks
• Mourning doves can fly at speeds of 55 mph

If you'd like to entice mourning doves to nest on your property, this site offers an inexpensive and nice looking nest box.   I bought one for Menno House and am hoping the doves will use it this year.

In case you're wondering how I came to know about the Menno House doves, well, I'm on the Board of Directors of Menno House which is owned and operated by Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship. 


Additional reading:
Mourning Doves and Their Young
The Mourning Doves Coo Begins Season Of Nesting and Feeding
Mourning Dove (Wikipedia, with great pictures and links) 



© 2012, Linda Mason Hood
Truffles, Turtles & Tunes Copyright Statement