How do I know if my macbook has been hacked?

I have a strong suspicion that my Macbook has been hacked. My concerns are as follows:
(1) My laptop has been running slow for several months.
(2) If my laptop is closed and left in standby mode for several minutes with the wifi left on, files will open up. I have opened my computer before and seen that someone is "snooping" in my files and this has happened when no one else has access to the laptop.
(3) For the last couple of days, when I try to logon to facebook, a message pops up asking me to register the device I am using but I have not changed devices. The email that I am being sent from facebook lists the "new" IP address but I don't know how to find out if that is my correct IP address or not.

Obviously, something malicious is happening and I am not sure how to fix it. I do have Norton AV on the machine and keep the software up-to-date. It has not found anything that explains this problem. It has found a virus called "VideoAccessCodeInstall-1.exe" which has been deleted. What else can I do to protect my computer?

Posted in the wrong forum... your post has been moved here to the "Switcher" forum as it does not belong in "Community Announcements".

Obviously, something malicious is happening and I am not sure how to fix it. I do have Norton AV on the machine and keep the software up-to-date. It has not found anything that explains this problem. It has found a virus called "VideoAccessCodeInstall-1.exe" which has been deleted. What else can I do to protect my computer?

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That's a Windows virus which has no impact whatsoever on your Mac but it's good that you removed it anyway.

The only thing I can suggest is to make sure you do not have any kind of sharing turned on. Also, if you're using wireless make sure you have strong encryption enacted such as WPA2. Never use wireless in the clear or with WEP encryption. And if you do use public in the clear wireless such as from Starbucks or Panera, never access your financial information or transmit any sensitive information like your SSAN or CC numbers.

If you are a member of any social networks (Facebook, Twitter, etc) change your password to a strong combination of letters, numbers, and characters. Also do likewise with your email and ISP provider.

And lastly, read our Sticky post regarding viruses and AV software. (At the top of this forum)

I think virus scanners do that (open and close progs randomly). I noticed this while I had (I think it was sophos for mac) installed on my mac. After I deleted the prog, it didn't happen again. I also noticed it ran slower and interfered when I was trying to use target disk to reinstall OS. I think all virus scanners will slow down your machine with the exception of Clamx which has been around for years for mac.

Years ago I got Parallels that came with a new version of Kaspersky. I scanned all my win machine files with it and it found a few virii that my win machine didn't detect. I feel that would be the only reason to scan for virii: If you are transferring files or have contact with win machines. Other than that, use Clamx which does a basic scan for some virii and focuses on malaware (which at this time is all that macs are vulnerable to) and errors.


Good luck

If you want to make sure that you do not have anything then try an antivirus such as Sophos. I run that on my mac at school because of all of the people that have viruses on their machines there.

Be aware there are no Mac viruses, and only a few malware trojans. if you must run AV consider ClamXAV which is freeware. On Bootcamp etc install Microsoft Security Essentials, which is also freeware.

Why pay an AV company to download Windows only virus definitions?

In short, it's probably NAV doing this by itself and you aren't being hacked. Macs are pretty hack-proof in addition to being virus-free, so unless you've deliberately opened the door to untrustworthy people by giving them your admin password, no you're not being hacked.

PS. NAV is also the reason it is running so slow. You have to remove it using the official uninstall procedure (tricky) but once you do I am very very sure you will notice a world of difference in that machine.