Issue with spyware?

M

Macscout

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My fiance' has a powerbook G4 that has worked perfectly up until now. Yesterday she got on a website that had been compromised by "Antispywaremaster". She thought the download looked "official" so she went ahead and tried to download it. BIG MISTAKE! By the time I found out what had happened, there were 4 icons on her desktop for the download and when trying to surf, webpages had stopped loading or would load VERY slooooooowly.
The first thing I did was to trash all the icons, empty the trash, delete all cookies, reset the browser (Safari), remove all entries in the download list, and search for any sign of Antispywaremaster on the hard drive (could'nt find any).
After all this, web surfing is now somewhat faster, but it still is not working like it should (web pages loading slowly or not completely). Everything else seems fine.
There is no problem with the internet connection. I am using DSL, a modem, a router, and then wirelessly connected to the powerbook through an airport, with my pc and the mac sharing an internet connection. My pc is functioning fine on the internet.
I have kept her mac up to date with all updates from Apple and let it run at night for scheduled maintenence. Never had any problems until now.
I have googled Antispymaster and have seen all kinds of issues with Windows, but nothing related to a mac.
HELP! What should I do? I have thought of uninstalling and then reinstalling Safari to see if that might work, but first I thought I would seek out a second opinion and see if anyone has ever had anything similar happen.
Thanks.
 
I've had junk left on my desktop on one or two occasions. The files all ended in .exe. I just trashed them.
 
Update:
I should have tittled this thread "Issue with Malware?". I have read all the stickies related to virus' , posting , etc. I know enough to never download a bogus program, but I am stuck trying to fix an problem that her computer is now having. I realize that mac's do not have the problems with malware, virus' etc. that Windows based pc's have - BUT - this problem only appeared when "Antispywaremaster" was downloaded or attempting to download. From reading the stickies and other posts, I realize that it is almost impossible for a mac to get infected. Coincidence? I don't know.
I have searched the internet as far as I can to try and find a solution and with great reluctance have registered and posted this question. I read the sticky that says how reluctant people are to respond to "Help - I have a virus on my mac"
I've managed to solve every problem on my pc and on the mac without ever asking for advice.
I am not as familiar with macs as I am with Windows, so I am asking for help with an issue I have not been able to find a solution for.
Thanks Again.
 
Macscout said:
My fiance' has a powerbook G4 that has worked perfectly up until now. Yesterday she got on a website that had been compromised by "Antispywaremaster". ...
Click to expand...
AntiSpywareMaster is a Windows malware title. To your fiancé's PowerBook G4, however, it is just a collection of files. There is no way that it can do anything to her computer other than occupy storage space. You may have some coincidental events or you may be freaking-out after seeing the title on your Windows computer. If there is damage to the PB G4, then it was caused by your attempts to "repair" the computer and not by AntiSpywareMaster.
 
As any kind computer user you should heed this. Just go to OpenDNS and use the service. While there sign up for the FREE account to control your DNS. Once with a free account to the Dashboard and look for the section to block sites. There you can block KNOWN phishing sites. You can also get a free PhishTank account and contribute to phish reporting.

Join the fight and use a GREAT FREE service.
 
I have recently started using PithHelmet and wonder if I would use OpenDNS in conjunction with PithH and possibly PhishTank?

I notice that for average home users it's best to enable OpenDNS on your Router (I have 3 - 4 computers networked at any time), but when logged in to my Router I note that there doesn't appear to be any reference to DNS? I can however see the two DNS addresses in my Macs System Prefs?
 
Can you elaborate a bit on the problems you're currently having? You say Safari still seems a bit slow. Is this with all sites, or just a few? Has there been any change on other networked machines? (If so, try rebooting your router.) My first thought was that it might only feel slow because you cleared out its cache and it's re-downloading a lot of data it previously had in the cache. In that case, it should return to normal after a while of typical use.

You might want to try another browser like Firefox, if only for comparison.

I'm inclined to agree with MisterMe — a Windows virus really can't harm a Mac. However, I would like to know a bit more about what was downloaded just to be sure. What kinds of files were they, and did you or your fiancé open any of them? In any case, it can't hurt to run a virus scan with ClamXav.
 
Thank you all for the replies.
Good news - All is back to normal on her mac.
It appears that in resetting Safari and cleaning the browser cache that it caused a temporary slowdown in loading all web pages.
If you found a bogus program on a friends computer - cleaned all traces of it - and were experiencing a problem that seemed malware related - What would you do?
Sorry for the false alarm.
After a coulpe of re-boots, today all is right again.
Our computers are not networked they only share an internet connection, so all if fine with my pc.

Once again, Thank you all for the replies.
 
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