has my mac been infected with spyware or something?

Question

i have a mac book its only a year old or so everything runs smoothly on it but recently safari and fire fox have been playing up. in fact i got firefox because safari was having problems and now they both do it.

i dont really get pop ups
here's how things usually go

I search something through google ( it could even be a big company for instance today i did volvo)
for a big company like that the first result is going to be volvo right?
so i click on it and the address bar says volvo but then it jumps to a something else which usually begins with 'smart biz search' and then jumps through reams of other addresses and numbers eventually settles on a bogus search site called info.co.uk with loads of what looks like used volvo dealers . i then click back a few times to get back to the google results page and if i click on the volvo result again it takes me to the legit volvo site.
now, as i said both safari and fire fox do exactly the same thing although they take different routes. the fire fox one is even more sneaky. it takes me to the suppliers .co.uk and with a little message saying 'we have technical problems with our search function please use the one provided'.
what is the deal? is it my computor that has been hijacked or google and how do i get rid of it?
my browsers are getting progressivly stickyer please help!

Answer 1

Download a free trial version of macscan and see if that works. It's free for the first 30 days.

Answer 2

Your symptoms suggest your web browsers have been hijacked.



I would download some free trial of security for the Mac, and scan your system, This kind of virus is usually referred too as spyware. So a good anti-spyware program should catch and clean up your computer. sorry I cant recommend the best for your Mac, But Kaspersky are one of the best for Pc, worth a try if they do a Mac edition.



Note, virus's for Mac os x are a lot less common than for the PC, but as Mac's are becoming more common, Virus attackers are becoming more interested in attacking a system that currently many Mac owners feel needs little or not security.

Plus Vista has tough security to crack.



If the number of people using Mac's os x or Linux continues to increases, It will just be a mater of time before theirs a significant rise in malware attacks on theses platforms.



For this reason Mac owners should be hoping Windows next o/s (Windows 7) is as good (or better) as Leopard / Snow Leopard and the take up of Mac's is reduced. Thats the only reason Windows is currently the number 1 target.



Based on the amount of Mac users on yahoo answers who believe its safe on-line without any security, Im surprised Mac's dont get more than the current one or two viruses per week trying to infect Mac's.

I would bet, that virus targeted at Mac's will significant rise by late 2009 / early 2010.



P.s Your very unlucky to have both your web browsers hijacked.

Hope you have another 'clean' computer to download some Mac security.



Most viruses could be killed off very quickly by sending (via the internet) the virus, a virus to disable it, but current laws dont allow law abiding company's to do this. A shame I think.

Answer 3

Read this thread which talks about some kind of browser hijack involving Firefox and Safari.



http://forums.obdev.at/viewtopic.php?t=193



This forum conversation turns into a bit of flame war, but they guy at the end says that he fixed it with something called DNS Changer Removal Tool.



It sounds like something called the DNSChanger trojan which makes sense as to why it affects both browsers. DNS is the mechanism a browser uses to convert a domain name like www.google.com into an IP address for a server.



So it looks like whatever this trojan is, it is intercepting these DNS requests and diverting to another web page chosen by the writers of the trojan.



DNS Changer Removal Tool can be downloaded here:



http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/26652/dnschanger-removal-tool



http://cyberinsecure.com/new-dnschanger-trojan-allows-mass-dns-hijack-non-windows-and-fully-patched-systems-affected/









Dare I say it. This trojan affects Mac's as well.

Answer 4

best thing to do is downlaod a program called malwarebytes great for permentaly removeing viruses trojans spyware the lot from ya system u defentaly have someone controlling ya computer from theres i had it happen to me once run the program then the san if no luck then grab ya restore disk and a system refresh that should sort it

Answer 5

Not sure how to remove it, but what was suggested above sounds prudent.



You might want to use Norton AV11 for Mac. I find it is pretty good and very unobtrusive unlike its PC counterpart. A lot of people like ClamAV as well.

Answer 6

Sounds like a case of browser hijacking. Malware indeed. I recommend using anti-virus software, though I couldn't suggest a particular one as I don't know the anti-virus market for macs.

Answer 7

Sounds bad.



The best thing to do is start from scratch. Get out your restore disks that came with the computer and reinstall OS X.

Answer 8

I thought Macs were SUPPOSED to be imune from this kinda stuff ? (Judging from the responses to questions like "Should I get a Mac or PC ?")

Answer 9

Reinstall your leopard or tiger or wahatever it is macs have got!!!!