I think I have Spyware on my Mac

[j21t]

I have found that there may be spyware on my emac. On the desktop I discovered what looks to be Orbit Explorer-it's a small icon and after searching google found that it is spyware.

I've also just learned that using IE isn't the best idea, so am now using Firefox.

Anyway-is anyone familiar with this and if so-how should I remove it?

Is it really 'working' on the mac?

Thanks.

 

[iSheep]

Orbit Explorer is Windows only adware. Just Trash it.

Stay away from IE, even the Mac version! Ever tried Safari?

 

[j21t]

Orbit Explorer is Windows only adware. Just Trash it.

Stay away from IE, even the Mac version! Ever tried Safari?

Yes-I have Safari and now have just downloaded firefox, which is good.

Leave it to me to get some sort of virus on a...MAC!!

I had tried trashing it, but it wouldn't go into the trash, just behind it. I double clicked on it, and now it's disappeared...I'm not sure now if I'm just paranoid, but now I'm sure some strange things have been happening. Sometimes certain pages won't load-even if I switch from Safari to Firefox and back.

Any ideas? I want to get rid of this, and after searching google, am not coming up with much info.

 

[Aptmunich]

Ok first things first:

NO SPYWARE WILL RUN ON A MAC.

Right, now that's out of the way, on with the problem.

If you dragged the icon into your trash, it's as good as gone. Select 'emtpy trash' from the Finder's main menu to get rid of it for good.

If you can't find the file, don't worry, it can't hurt you. If you want to find it anyway, open a new finder window, and type 'Orbit explorer' into the little white box at the top right corner. Drag any files it might find into the trash.

As for your surfing difficulties:

mac's can sometimes have trouble with pages not specifically check for use with macs. Try opening safari, go to preferences -> security and activate 'enable plug-ins' and the other check boxes.

also try switching off 'enable pop-up blocking' as that can sometimes cause problems.


If that doesn't work, maybe the page is just offline.

You don't need to worry about using Internet explorer on your mac, it's the WINDOWS version of IE that is vunerable to virus exploits and spyware. The mac version is a horrible program to use, but at least it can't hurt you.

Remember: On mac OSX there are no viruses, spyware progs, adware progs that can hurt you.

You can download these things that are designed to hurt a PC on your mac, but they can't DO anything!

 

[j21t]

Ok first things first:

NO SPYWARE WILL RUN ON A MAC.

Right, now that's out of the way, on with the problem.

If you dragged the icon into your trash, it's as good as gone. Select 'emtpy trash' from the Finder's main menu to get rid of it for good.

If you can't find the file, don't worry, it can't hurt you. If you want to find it anyway, open a new finder window, and type 'Orbit explorer' into the little white box at the top right corner. Drag any files it might find into the trash.

As for your surfing difficulties:

mac's can sometimes have trouble with pages not specifically check for use with macs. Try opening safari, go to preferences -> security and activate 'enable plug-ins' and the other check boxes.

also try switching off 'enable pop-up blocking' as that can sometimes cause problems.


If that doesn't work, maybe the page is just offline.

You don't need to worry about using Internet explorer on your mac, it's the WINDOWS version of IE that is vunerable to virus exploits and spyware. The mac version is a horrible program to use, but at least it can't hurt you.

Remember: On mac OSX there are no viruses, spyware progs, adware progs that can hurt you.

You can download these things that are designed to hurt a PC on your mac, but they can't DO anything!

Hi,

Thanks for your input...But...I couldn't delete the icon. I tried dragging it into the trash, but it would go anywhere around it but in.

I had already tried a search in the finder search bar for 'orbit explorer', but nothing came up. I've tried it since it disappeared(after I had double clicked on the icon) and still-nothing has come up in a search in finder. Or in the trash. Or anywhere else. Maybe I should re-word from 'spyware' to a UFI..'Unidentified Icon', because I have no idea what it was/is then, if it's not spyware.