Highly recommended Mac malware removal guide
By Renee | 04/Dec/2023
This is the fastest way to learn how to protect your Mac from the reliable source—Reddit, Quora and cyber security experts, who range from researchers, to bloggers and journalists who have been writing about cyber security issues for years and years. All these experts’ and tech geeks’ knowledge and experience is packed into a must-read guide for malware removal on Mac.
Macs do have an anti-malware feature known as XProtect, but it only blocks a handful of the most notorious pieces of malware after they’ve become widespread. It won’t necessarily block anything new, and it won’t stand in the way of all the adware and spyware out there. You need to follow good online safety practices to avoid malware on a Mac, just like you do on a Windows PC.
First of all, if your Mac is infected with malware, you are likely to suffer from the following symptoms:
1. Browser popups appear which recommend fake updates or other software.
2. Other unwanted programs might get installed without your knowledge.
3. Random web page text is turned into hyperlinks.
Step 1 Uninstall the malicious apps from your Mac OS
1. Moving the malicious applications to the Trash Bin.
->Go to Finder>Applications to find out the sneaky apps. Select Empty Trash to get rid of them completely.
2. Removing hidden application support files.
->Click on Hard drive icon, and then go to Library folder. Type the name of the app or other related clue on the search box and delete.
3. Removing hidden support files from user library.
->Open Finder>Users and choose the folder with your user name.
->Click on the Library folder, and then use the search function to find out the hidden file of the malicious app.
4. Deleting Extensions.
->Go to Finder>system>Library>Extensions and make sure to delete the file with the exact name of the malicious app.
Step 2 Remove unwanted extensions from your browser
Different browsers get different ways on details to delete the Extension. Here are the steps to remove extensions on Safari and Google Chrome.
Safari
->From the Safari menu, select Preferences.
->In the Safari Preferences window, click the Extensions tab. Find any unknown plugin, then click on the Uninstall button.
->Select Preferences, go to the General tab and change the Default Search Engine to Google. Then, in the “General” tab, find the “Home Page” and change it to google.com or whatever you like.
Google Chrome
->Click on Chrome’s hamburger menu button (three horizontal lines). When the drop-down menu appears, select the option Settings.
->Scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on the Show advanced settings link.
-> To complete the restoration process, click on the Reset button.
Step 3 Scan and clean your device with reliable Anti-malware or Anti-virus for Mac
If you are still worried about the malware or are experiencing issues on your Mac OS, you’d better perform a system scan with reliable anti-virus or anti-malware like Malwarebytes, Bitdefender, and Avast.
Tips to Prevent Malware attack:
1) Keep your software up-to-date.
2) Do not click on any links that might put your identity and privacy in risk.
3) Have different, strong and random passwords for different online accounts.