How To Get Rid Of Malware On Mac

With all the added attention, Mac users have become more susceptible to Malware attacks. Malware attacks are nothing like you might have seen in movies like the 1992 Jolie-starrer Hackers, or the more recent Chris Hemsworth flick Blackhat.

Half the times, you won’t even know you have been attacked! Malware are just like normal software or apps. The only difference is that malware authors – more commonly known as hackers – put in bad codes that can essentially cause harm to the system and/or force the user to pay up for stolen data.

Malware attacks may start with a simple click on a seemingly harmless advertisement link or a fishy email link. When you click on such links, you are potentially exposing your Mac to stealthy software installs.

These days, the malicious apps just install scans and pretends to find a malware on your Mac. The next thing you know, you are tricked into paying for the software which itself is a malware. Well, there are other ways as well in which malware can cheat you out of your money.

The good news is there’s a fix for all such possibilities. We have discussed the ways in which you should deal with this issue and also the ways to avoid the infection in the first place.

Whenever you get a message on your Mac or any website suggests that you have Malware on your computer, here is what you can do.

First and foremost quit the browser window on which you are working. To close the browser either you can press Command Key along with Q or right click on the icon of the browser and choose Quit from the drop-down menu.

Delete all the install files and unwanted files from the Downloads folder. To do that, Go to Finder-> Go->Downloads

Empty the Trash bin. To do that, click on Empty from the right-hand side of the window.

However, if you suspect  any malicious software is installed on your Mac, removing the software and all the files related to it will help. To do so, follow the below steps:

• Check the name of the app.
• Now go to Finder -> Go -> Utilities

Note: You can also open Utilities by pressing Command, Shift, and U.

• From the Utilities folder, open Activity Monitor
  
• Now look for all the processes related to the software.
• Click on them one by one and you will get another window with the information of the process running. You can click on Quit to end the process from the bottom of the window.
  
• Once all the processes are dumped, go to Finder-> Go-> Applications.

• The Applications folder will open, look for the software and drag it to Trash to delete the app.
• Once you have deleted the app from the Applications folder, don’t forget to remove it from the Trash.
• Go to Trash and empty the bin to remove the file completely.

So, these are steps that can be followed if you suspect you have a malware on your system. To avoid getting the infection in the first place, you need to keep a few things in mind:

• Always keep your Mac OS and applications installed up to date. Whenever an update is available for apps installed, a number is highlighted on the App Store icon, denoting the number of apps that need to be updated.
• You can also turn on Automatic Updates to make sure you never miss one. To do so, Click on Apple icon->System Preferences.
• Under System Preferences, click on App Store. App Store settings window will open, now checkmark beside Automatically check for Updates.

• Never download an application from a third party website. Go for the software listed on your Mac App Store as they have been tested before adding to the list in App Store.

Now that you know how to deal with Malware attacks when it comes to your Mac, go ahead and secure it before you are compromised!