Does anyone know what this is and if it is dangerous?

The attached window opens on my iMac periodically. I always say "Terminate" but am concerned what happens when I am not at the computer. I've tried to research it but haven't found anyting useful so far. I should add that I've searched my hard drive and cannot find any files called 7za.

Thanks.

Mark

what is "ransom where"?

is it some sort of app that detects ransomware on your Mac?

It's a scam. You have malware on your machine. Try using malwarebytes anti malware to clean it.

Thanks chscag. I've run Malwarebytes several times and it finds nothing. I've also done a Norton full scan and it doesn't find anything either.

Nickyr, that's a good question. I seem to remember installing it a couple of years ago at the same time I installed Malwarebytes but when I look now it is not under Applications so I'm not sure where it is on my drive. I'm wondering if that's part of the problem.

Mark F said:

Thanks chscag. I've run Malwarebytes several times and it finds nothing. I've also done a Norton full scan and it doesn't find anything either.

Click to expand...

TBH I'd get rid of Norton. I haven't used it in years. It made installation and updating of OS X a giant pain.

Also, if you get any Adobe product from anywhere but Adobe, it may be carrying malware along with it. Never update any Adobe product except at the Adobe.com website that YOU put into the browser address, not clicking on some link in an email, or popup.

Slydude, I also run W10 under Parallels and have Norton there. I also had a bad experience with Norton on the Mac side a few years ago so uninstalled it there. But when this 7za window started popping up I reinstalled it and so far so good.

Anyway, does anyone have any suggestions how I can get rid of this thing?

7za is a compression method like ZIP, ARJ and so on. Looks like Adobe Acrobat updater is running and the update it pulled down came in a the 7za format and that's it.

On the other hand, that popup is coming from RansomWhere? which you may or may not have installed. If you have and didn't intend to, uninstall it, if you did, then learn how to use the app.

If theRansomWhere? is an app and still on your Mac - but not apparently in Applications (Not even under Applications > Utilities??) - then:

1. Open Spotlight and type in the name of the app and see if there are any hits

2. Better still, download and use a great app called EasyFind. This can show hidden files as well as the usual.

In either case, delete all those you find - unless, as Ashwin said, you want to keep it and its associated files in which case the app should be in Applications and a Google Search will no doubt locate the developer and how to use the app.

Ian

Thanks to all for helping. I downloaded EasyFInd and searched for both RansomWare? and 7za and had no hits. I used various operators and included hidden files. Very strange.

Did you see my link and see how to uninstall RansomWhere?

Raz0rEdge said:

Did you see my link and see how to uninstall RansomWhere?

Click to expand...

I did, but how do I uninstall it if I can't find it?

Did you see this question;

[FONT=&quot]Q:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] How can I tell if RansomWhere? is installed and running? [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]A:[/FONT][FONT=&quot] By design, RansomWhere? keeps a low profile and chooses not to clutter up the UI. To check if it's running, simply use [/FONT][FONT=&quot]Activity Monitor.app[/FONT][FONT=&quot], select [/FONT][FONT=&quot]View->All Processes[/FONT][FONT=&quot], and look for a running process named 'RansomWhere'

from that page?[/FONT]

Thank you Bob, I followed your advice and indeed Ransomwsare is running and the user is "Root", which I think is me as administrator. BUt why can't I find it using Spotlight or even EasyFInd?

Anyway, finding RansomWare is only the secondary question. I still need to find this 7za thing and eliminate it from my life.

The 7za "thing" is part of the Adobe Updater and not something you want/need to touch. If you don't want it, then uninstall your Adobe products.

Thank you RazOrEdge, that's all I wanted to know as the RansomWare app indicated that 7za was locking files, which is one indication of ransomware. Again, thanks to all.