July 2018 - Technology Mini-Bytes

It's a Scam! You don't have a virus! But You May Have Malware This is going to be the next in the tough love series of articles. I've written on this subject many times before, but there seems to be a big push in the virus pop-up scam this summer.  We've all seen it. A page pops-up claiming that our Macs are infected with 3 trillion viruses and if we don't call a number or click on a link in 30 seconds, all data, pictures, and email will be deleted. Well, don't buy it. It is a scam. It is always a scam. They want access to your machine. They want your money. They want to turn you into a victim. Don't be one. Do not call the number! Do not click on any links! Do not allow remote access to your machine! And, please, do not install anything! Since macOS is based on the UNIX operating system it is very difficult to write viruses for it. You can write a virus, but it is so much easier in the Windows PC world since they pass along infections like a kindergarten class. It is more efficient for the scammers to trick you into getting access to your Mac. Now they can deploy all types of malware that can re-direct your web searches, scrape off data, or log your keystrokes.  This is the tough-love part: If you have malware or adware you did it to yourself. It does not install on it's own. Your Mac doesn't go on a drunken binge through the seedy part of town only to awake the next morning with malware. No, you installed it. It may have come on with fake software, or a spoofed page. It doesn't matter, because you did it. And yes, it is okay to blame another member of the household -- out-of-town guests also make excellent scapegoats, by the way. How do you know if you've been infected? If your search page looks different in your web browser, you have it. If your search results look weird, you have it. If you constantly get pop-ups when surfing the web about viruses, you have it. And yes there are other indicators, but those are the big ones. To get rid of it you need software that expressly deals with malware. Subscription anti-virus programs do not always do the trick. We have seen machines running anti-virus software that were seething with malware. We have used a program in the past that used to be called AdWare Medic, but it is now Malwarebytes. It does a good job, but there are others out there. Just be careful, because a fake software that claims to clean up your Mac can just be a scam for you to install more malware, and you are back at square one. How do you avoid all of this in the first place? It is possible to avoid installing malware on your Mac. Since you do it, it's easy to stop. Here are some tips that will help: Use a legitimate search engine: Spoofed search results are one of the big ways you get tricked into installing malware. We have found that Google seems to be the best search engine at scrubbing its results of bogus pages, but even they are not 100%. Check the link: If you are going to your bank's webpage, look at the URL in the search result. It may be spoofed. If you regularly hit websites, we recommend adding them to bookmarks and going that way, which avoids the pitfalls of spoofed pages all together. Think twice before the install: It is amazing, but the Mac does not need a ton of third party utilities. It runs well on it's own. Don't get tricked into optimizers or things such as those. It will potentially throw some malware on to boot. Be Careful with Remote Access: The scammers want to access your machine remotely. They will show you all types of bogus errors or fake foreign IPs and try to scare the heck out of you. In the meantime they may be installing malware, key loggers, or fake profiles. Do not allow anyone to remotely access your machine unless you 100% know who they are. And do not give them any passwords. Let's be frank: The internet is the bad part of town filled with people who want to take advantage of you. They want to take your money, hijack your information, and if they leave you in a gutter somewhere, they just don't care. Don't be a victim. Check your six, and think before you click or install.

Application Stuck? Force Quit It! More Tools for Your Toolbox If you get stuck on one of those fake virus pages in Safari, or another application seems to lock the machine, there is a solution. macOS allows you to Force Quit an application. Here is how you do it: Method 1: Go up to the Apple in the upper left hand corner and select Force Quit from the drop-down menu. Choose the offending application and hit Force Quit. Method 2 (Pro Tip) Keyboard Command: Hit these three keys simultaneously: Command, Option, Escape. The Force Quit window will pop-up. Choose the offending application and hit Force Quit.

Mac being fussy? Maybe you need to Reset the SMC? Power Management Fix You are most likely familiar with Safe Boot and Zapping the PRAM. Well, this little tip falls into that same quick-fix bag of skills. The System Management Controller has responsibility for the fan, battery indicators, keyboard lighting, and a whole host of things. If your Mac is running a little pokey and you've tried everything else, resetting the SMC may be the ticket. Here is a link to the Apple article on what it is and how to do it: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295