Adware On The Macintosh

[Randy B. Singer]

As recently as a year ago adware was just about nonexistent on the Macintosh. Recently there has been an explosion of adware for the Mac. (I've had to help someone with an adware problem just about every day this past week!)

Unfortunately, most (all?) of the anti-virus utility developers don't consider adware to be "malware". That is, they don't consider adware to be doing anything malicious. Technically, adware doesn't harm you or your Mac in any way. So, their products don't look for or handle adware.

And Apple has yet to do anything about adware. OS X's built-in anti-virus system, X-Protect, doesn't block adware at all.

Fortunately, for now, if you do find your Mac infected with adware (which will be obvious, because you will find pop-up ads coming up all the time when you visit certain Web sites in your browser), you can clean your Mac of them quickly, easily, and for free, using:

AdwareMedic (free)
http://www.adwaremedic.com/index.php

I just worry about what will happen when the flood of adware becomes too much for the small company that developed AdwareMedic to keep up with.

I recommend that everyone contact Apple and request that they update X-Protect to look for and block adware:
https://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

 

[chas_m]

Great idea. Thanks, Randy.

 

[harryb2448]

Find Adware Medic great Randy and donated to the company to keep them afloat. Good to see you around again.

Now for the joke....Why do they insist lawyers be buried at 8 feet? Because deep, deep down they are good people!

 

[Slydude]

Thanks for the link Randy. I had a friend ask about Mac adware just today and I promised to look up the link. Once again I will appear to be a genius thanks to you.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Now for the joke....Why do they insist lawyers be buried at 8 feet? Because deep, deep down they are good people!

I love jokes, thanks! Especially ones that I haven't heard before.

I have a free e-mail Humor broadcast list. If anyone would like to be on it, just let me know at:

[email protected]

 

[Randy B. Singer]

This is very disappointing and disturbing.

The highly rated, and free, anti-virus program for the Macintosh, Avast, surreptitiously installs adware:
The Safe Mac » Avast installs adware!
TheSafeMac Web site recommends:
"strongly recommend that you uninstall Avast, if you have it installed. Be sure to use the most recent Avast uninstaller to properly remove all components of this software."

Also, Softonic, previously a legitimate source from which to download Macintosh software, now includes adware with many downloads:
The Safe Mac » Softonic

I'll try to keep folks updated about other sources of adware as I find out about them.

 

[Slydude]

I read about the Softonic adware a while ago and CNET is doing the same IIRC. I didn't know that Avast was following this pattern as well. Thanks for the update.

The Safe Mac » Boycott CNET’s Download.com

 

[harryb2448]

We had this discussions months ago Randy about the effectiveness of Avast! remember? We had a difference of opinion about this 'hog'. Things are getting as bad as the Windows world with these 'free add-ons'!

 

[Randy B. Singer]

We had this discussions months ago Randy about the effectiveness of Avast! remember? We had a difference of opinion about this 'hog'. Things are getting as bad as the Windows world with these 'free add-ons'!

I don't, but it doesn't matter. It didn't serve up adware then, but it certainly does now. So you can say anything bad about Avast that you want to...

 

[dtravis7]

Randy, I ran it and it found 2 pieces of Adware and it removed them from my iMac with Mountain Lion.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Randy, I ran it and it found 2 pieces of Adware and it removed them from my iMac with Mountain Lion.

It's starting to look like this is quite a bit more widespread of a problem than we suspected.

The problem is that most Mac users who are infected with adware don't even know that adware exists, let alone what to do about it.

 

[dtravis7]

It's starting to look like this is quite a bit more widespread of a problem than we suspected.

The problem is that most Mac users who are infected with adware don't even know that adware exists, let alone what to do about it.

Whatever the Adware was it was not affecting anything and the machine is the same since it was removed. The only POP UNder I ever get is from my local News paper and get that on any machine OSX or Windows.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Whatever the Adware was it was not affecting anything and the machine is the same since it was removed. The only POP UNder I ever get is from my local News paper and get that on any machine OSX or Windows.

Subjecting you to pop-ups isn't the only thing that adware can and might do. For instance, it can redirect you to another Web site other than the one that you are trying to get to, or it can place ads on your page other than the ads that they page itself intends for you to see. Adware can be doing this entirely seamlessly, without you even knowing that something surreptitious is going on.

 

[dtravis7]

Subjecting you to pop-ups isn't the only thing that adware can and might do. For instance, it can redirect you to another Web site other than the one that you are trying to get to, or it can place ads on your page other than the ads that they page itself intends for you to see. Adware can be doing this entirely seamlessly, without you even knowing that something surreptitious is going on.

Yes, I know that quite well. Never had any issues before or since it was removed. Not a one. I get ads on FB of things I was searching for, but every friend I know gets the same ads with any system they use including tablets. I have seen some adware in my many years as a computer and network tech that really did nothing that anyone saw.

Anyway again thanks for the Application as it might come in handy in the future. I did once have a friend with a Macbook that was infected with Nasty AdWare. That App would have saved the day!

 

[AlanFD]

Thanks Randy that appears to have taken care of it, I will watch it for a short time then donate.

 

[MacInWin]

Adblock+ and Ghostery are two great ad blocking packages and both work well to prevent malware getting started.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Ransom-ware/Scare-ware

More and more Mac users are encountering Scareware/Ransomware Web sites.
The kind of Web site that purports to lock your browser or encrypt your data, and then tries to get you to call a phone number for "Macintosh technical support" or to pay a ransom.

First, you should know that your browser isn't really locked, your data isn't really encrypted, and if you call these scammers and allow them access to your computer, the results are likely to be very bad. So, whatever you do, don't call the number in a pop-up from one of these Web sites.

Here is more information, with the best way to recover if you encounter one of these Web sites:

<http://www.magmatic.com/magmatic-awareness-alert/2013/7/15/condition-remains-green.html>

<http://www.thesafemac.com/fbi-ransomware-virus-rampant/>

Here is something new to pro-actively keep the above from being a problem:

ScamZapper for Safari (free)
<https://sites.google.com/site/appleclubfhs/downloads/scamzapper-info>
"The ScamZapper extension for Safari blocks a specific kind of pop-up: the kind that claims that your computer has been infected with a virus, and you need to call a number for assistance, usually accompanied by there seemingly being no way to close out of the pop-up, as it has locked up your browser."

 

[chscag]

Thanks Randy, I just downloaded it.

 

[Slydude]

As did I. Ran into one of those pages this morning. Before that I hadn't run into one of those in quite a while.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

Thanks Randy, I just downloaded it.

I should say quickly that I don't know how effective it is yet.

I do know that if you have any other sort of adware that this works great:

AdwareMedic (free)
AdwareMedic

If you run across the rare bit of adware that AdwareMedic can't handle, try:

DetectX (free)
DetectX | sqwarq