Have I been scammed

[IWT]

I have Carbon Copy Cloner installed backs up once a week. I also do have Time machine set up for a daily scan

Good to hear.

If the consensus opinion is that you should erase the Mac's SSD and download a new version of your Operating System, you now have the means of doing this using Time Machine or CCC (I find the TM easier, but that's just me). Post #12 provides the details.

From your reading of the posts since then, you will see that there is divided opinion on the need of an erase/reinstall. I don't wish to intervene on that score, but at least you now know the means by which this can be done.

Passwords are the major issue - it seems all agree on that.

Good luck.

Ian

 

[allchange]

I have downloaded and installed the free VirusBarrier Scanner, completed scan found the one that was causing the problem and dealt with it.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I have downloaded and installed the free VirusBarrier Scanner, completed scan found the one that was causing the problem and dealt with it.

What was "the one"? I'd love to know its name.

 

[Rod]

Me too.
This why scamming still works. First induce panic then provide a solution. Don't feel too bad about it allchange, you are just one of many thousands who fall for these well designed frauds every month.
Concentrate on changing your important passwords first including social media. You may find you have been locked out already because your password has been changed by the scammers. If so most social media sites have online instructions on what to do to get your account back. If your Facebook account, for example, has been hacked, scammers will use your profile to scam your contacts.
You might like to inform close friends/ family that you suspect you have been hacked. That way they can ignore or confirm odd messages with you personally.

 

[allchange]

Hi Randy how can I send you the name of the java safely last thing I want is to infect this site.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Just put the name is plain text. You cannot infect this site.

 

[pm-r]

Little Snitch made it's name as a reverse firewall. Lulu is a reverse firewall too.

Thanks for the nice summary.

Even though I have had an older version of Little Snitch for several years that was often recommended by various Mac sites and forums, I often wondered about its usefulness for a single home user and actually gave up using it and keeping it updated with its various nattering requests and approvals.




- Patrick
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[allchange]

This is what the VirusBarrrier Scanner found and sent to quarantine. log4j-core-20-beta-9jar
java/cve-2021-44228

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Interesting, that isn't any virus. There was a vulnerability in the Log4j library that needed to be addressed. Most folks who use that library updated pretty quickly. The library itself doesn't do anything, it's used by apps/websites to do logging.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

This is what the VirusBarrrier Scanner found and sent to quarantine. log4j-core-20-beta-9jar
java/cve-2021-44228

Thank you for getting back to me and telling me what VirusBarrier found!

A Google search tells me that that is a Java exploit. (A file with a ".jar" extension is a Java archive.) Java is a programming language and an environment for running Java-based applications. I'm assuming that you don't have Java installed. (You would know if you did, because Java has to be volitionally sought out and downloaded and manually installed. You would only do this is you had a need to run Java and you knew what you were doing.) So this was/is harmless on your Macintosh. It likely showed up as a viral attachment to an e-mail message.

Also, near as I can tell, this Java exploit doesn't run on Macintosh computers. There are no reports of it being a problem on any Macintosh, ever.

I also looked in the pooled archive of all past and present malware for the Macintosh that anti-virus developers use, and there was no mention of it there. So I'm guessing that VirusBarrier only finds it and deletes it for the safely of folks who work in Java environments alongside folks who use Macs.

So what VirusBarrier found was indeed malware, but it was harmless to your Macintosh as it couldn't run or do anything on your Macintosh.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

There was a CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures) issued for Log4j. So VirusBarrier is just reporting that based on the version of library that's present on your machine.

You DO NOT have to manually install Java yourself. There are many applications out there written in Java that are packaged as full Mac Applications that include their accompanying libraries like log4j.