Search results for: redirect browser
Eliminating browser redirects and advertisements
Posted on December 6th, 2012 at 9:53 PM EDT
Windows users have been plagued for years by malware and junkware that causes their web browsers to redirect to undesired pages, advertisements to be injected in web pages, changes to the home page and search engine settings and other undesirable behaviors. Unfortunately, this is now spreading into the Mac world. Reports of these kinds of issues are becoming increasingly common, and confused users don’t know how to handle it. (I hear a lot of comments like, “I Googled it, but all the instructions were for Windows users!”) So what is a Mac user supposed to do when faced with such problems?
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Adware Removal Guide : OperatorMac
Posted on June 30th, 2015 at 5:23 PM EDT
This adware will redirect you to different pages and inject content, such as an odd set of navigation controls floating over the page, into pages in your web browser.
Removal
Delete all of the following browser extensions that you find: Opti-Page, Toppy. (See Identifications > Examine Browser Extensions for instructions on how to locate your browser extensions.)
Move the following items to the trash, if present. Note that, if you don’t know how to locate a file or folder based on the paths that I will give in the instructions, you should read Locating files from paths.
~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/chromex ~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default/chromexdm ~/Library/Application Support/mediahm ~/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mediahm.operator.update.plist
If you have Firefox installed, go to the following folder:
~/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/
Inside that folder, you will find another folder whose name begins with a series of random characters and ends with “.default”. Open that folder, and look for a folder named searchplugins. Inside that folder, delete the “mySearchPlug.xml” file, if present.
InstallCore adware proliferates
Posted on April 8th, 2015 at 11:42 AM EDT
InstallCore is adware that began with a couple simple browser extensions. (One of these took the same name as a Spigot extension, “Searchme”, leaving questions about whether InstallCore might be related to Spigot in some way or whether this is purely coincidence.) Recently, however, new variants of InstallCore have been appearing like poop on a lawn full of geese. And some of the strategies it’s using stink just as badly!
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Tech support scam pop-ups
Posted on January 6th, 2015 at 7:14 AM EDT
The internet has been awash with all manner scams for a long time. The variety boggles the imagination, ranging from Nigerian princes wanting to pay strangers exorbitant sums for help moving some money, to Facebook posts asking if it’s really you in this photo, to “one weird trick” for just about anything you might want to do. Although not exactly new, one of these scams has seen an upswing in recent months: the fake tech support scam.
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A look back at the malware of 2014
Posted on January 2nd, 2015 at 4:34 PM EDT
As most Mac users know, Macs don’t get malware. Unfortunately, what most Mac users know on this topic is actually wrong! There actually is Mac malware out there, there’s just a lot less than there is for Windows. Fortunately, in 2014, new malware appearances have dropped since 2013.
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Ongoing MacKeeper fraud
Posted on November 2nd, 2014 at 11:04 AM EDT
Controversy about MacKeeper has been around almost as long as MacKeeper has existed. It is one of the most aggressively-marketed products in the Mac world, and there are numerous accusations that it isn’t useful or even that it is fraudulent. At the same time, you will find a number of positive reviews out there. How do you know what’s true? In this article, I will make the case that MacKeeper, and the company behind it (ZeoBIT/Kromtech), are not to be trusted.
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Adware blocking AdwareMedic downloads!
Posted on October 28th, 2014 at 6:24 AM EDT
Last week, I began to receive a series of reports from people that the Download button on the AdwareMedic site wasn’t working. First it was just a trickle, then a flood. For some people, the button was redirecting to the MacKeeper website. For others, it was going to a “not found” error page. I knew that the site itself wasn’t doing that, since I wrote every single piece of code on the AdwareMedic site… so what was going on?
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Are ad blockers worthwhile?
Posted on May 5th, 2014 at 10:51 AM EDT
These days, everyone recommends using an ad blocker of some kind to prevent unwanted advertisements from showing up in the web browser. Seems like a good idea, right? Well, maybe not. It’s a bit unconventional of me, and is sure to generate some controversy, but my advice would be not to use an ad blocker. Yes, I hear the chorus of yelling and objections I just caused, but hear me out.
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Mac adware menace continues
Posted on April 7th, 2014 at 7:05 PM EDT
Over the last couple months, I’ve seen an explosion in reports of adware infections. Just in the last four days, I have seen at least a couple dozen reports of GoPhoto infections alone. The threat of adware, a problem for Windows users for years, appears to be coming into its own on the Mac. Today, I found an adware installer that seems to be the epitome of the adware menace.
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Electronic Arts server hacked to steal Apple IDs
Posted on March 19th, 2014 at 1:09 PM EDT
Paul Mutton of Netcraft posted an article today about the discovery of an Electronic Arts server that has been hacked and turned into a phishing site. The site evidently requests not only an Apple ID and password, but then proceeds to ask for other personal information, including credit card information, full name and date of birth, and mother’s maiden name. Once provided, it redirects the user to the real Apple ID site.
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