Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Tech: Leopard Trojan / Phishing fix

Last week the net was swamped with reports of a new Mac malware, the OSX.RSPlug.A Trojan Horse. Macworld has a detailed report on what it does and how to remove it.

From MacWorld:

1. In the Finder, navigate to /Library -> Internet Plug-Ins, and delete the file named plugins.settings. Empty the trash. This deletes the tool that sets the rogue DNS Server information.


2. In Terminal, type sudo crontab -r and provide your admin password when asked. This deletes the root cron job that checks the DNS Server settings. You can prove it worked by typing sudo crontab -l; you should see the message “crontab: no crontab for root.”


3. Open your Network System Preferences panel, go to the DNS Server box, and copy the entries you can see to a Stickies note, TextEdit document, or memorize them. Now retype those same values in the box, then click Apply.


4. Reboot your Mac.

Bottom line is to follow typical 'safe computing' guidelines...

As always, the best way to avoid these things is to not install software from untrusted sources—especially if it comes as an installer package and requests your administrator’s password! But if you do get infected, at least you’ll know how to confirm you have an issue, and remove the troublesome software.

Labels: Apple Mac OS X, Malware, Security, Trojan Horse

Article Link posted by Edward at 11:01 AM
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Thursday, August 02, 2007

Tech: Anti Virus / Malware Software

I sometimes wonder how some people keep getting their PCs infected with virus. I rarely ever get any virus on my PC, even when I wasn't using any Anti-Virus software. And I haven't caught a virus yet ( cross my fingers ) since I got my first Mac in 2001. I don't even think there exists a virus for OS X in the wild. Let's hope that stays that way.

Whatever the case, my customers that are running Windows often have virus or malware problems. Here are a few tools that I have found helpful in cleaning and preventing virus and malware:

AVG Free - Free, and runs with pretty low resources. AVG purchased an Anti Spyware company a while back and is offering an excellent Anti Spyware package as well ( though not free ).
Avast - There is also a Free Anti Virus version of Avast for home users. Like AVG, it provides excellent virus protection for relatively low resource usage ( though I feel Avast is a little more resource hungry than AVG )
Kaspersky - There is no Free version for Kaspersky. However, from various reports on the net Kaspersky seems to be one of if not THE best Anti Virus software on the market. Very accurate and extremely efficient in identifying and scanning for virus. It is reported that Kaspersky is the most effivient Anti Virus software out there.

Spybot Search & Destroy - This is my favorite Spyware and Malware scanning and removal software. It is completely Free and development depends on users' donations. Spybot paired with AVG will provide pretty comprehensive protection for your Windows PC without the bloat of Norton or McAfee suites.
CCleaner - A Free tool to clean up various thing on your Windows PC.
Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel - A Free tool by Mike Lin that let's you easily turn-off all those pesky little applications that start when you boot Windows.

Although Macs aren't as vulnerable as Windows to virus now, they can still spread virus by passing them on via various means:

ClamXav - ClamXav is a gui frontend for the open source ClamAV antivirus software. It's probably a good idea to have this installed and run every now and then in case you are passing on virus unknowingly.

Labels: Anti Virus, Antivirus, Clean Up PC, Free software, Free Windows tools, Mac Virus, Malware, Spyware

posted by Edward at 1:05 PM
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