Virus on my Mac?
Author
Discussion

Beggarall

Original Poster:

596 posts

272 months

Tuesday 3rd December 2019
quotequote all
I keep getting a message pop up on my Mac about "TechSignalSearch". I thought I had deleted the app but it recurs. Have I caught something nasty? How do i get rid of it? Should I have antivirus installed - if so which? I remember from my Window days that antivirus was often a mixed blessing. Any help appreciated.

Troubleatmill

10,210 posts

190 months

Tuesday 3rd December 2019
quotequote all
Sophos is free - get it
Or spend some money and get Bitdefender. ( which I use )

Macs are being targeted for viruses. And you have one - it is recording your keystrokes.
So be careful.



Edited by Troubleatmill on Tuesday 3rd December 19:23

LordGrover

34,189 posts

243 months

Tuesday 3rd December 2019
quotequote all
Malwarebytes should sort it.

Australiam

277 posts

160 months

Tuesday 3rd December 2019
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Take a look at this: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/25023303

I second the use of Sophos!

There is a much smaller % of malware, but it is out there, and that is enough to make me add a layer of protection.

Beggarall

Original Poster:

596 posts

272 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
quotequote all
Thank you for the replies. I have signed up for TotalAV on a 30 day trial and will let you know how it gets on. It has lots of positive reviews (for what they are worth) and rated top in "Best AV 2019". So far customer service has been very good.
The TechSignalSearch is an unwanted extension on Google Chrome and easily deleted. There is also another search engine called lkysearchds2573 - etc which seems to have installed itself which was removed by resetting Chrome. I don't use Chrome much but sometimes it works better than Safari when dealing with online forms and you can also save padlocked pdfs from it - so it does have its uses!

LordGrover

34,189 posts

243 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
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Brave browser is based on chrome but offers better security and ad blocking out of the box.

jamoor

14,506 posts

246 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
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LordGrover said:
Brave browser is based on chrome but offers better security and ad blocking out of the box.
This, I have switched entirely to Brave.

It also has an included adblocker and more importantly ad blocker blocker.

LordGrover

34,189 posts

243 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
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uBlock origin is my choice.

Bikerjon

2,211 posts

192 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
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For a mac I reckon malwarebytes is by far the best option.

The_Jackal

4,854 posts

228 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
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Beggarall said:
Thank you for the replies. I have signed up for TotalAV on a 30 day trial and will let you know how it gets on.!
I would rethink that choice. You may have stumbled onto a fake "Best of 2019...." website just setup to advertise TotalAV.
MacWorld dont even list it in their top ten AVs for MAC.
Going by the PC reviews of that software by established major PC sites, it does really badly in tests, marking dangerous payloads as safe.
Please believe people when they recommend Sophos, they are one of the standards in corporate AV software because it is one of the best.
You should be more careful than most as you have already been caught. Until you have scanned your machine properly, I would hold off on typing any passwords or bank details.
Please get Sophos and Malwarebytes.
For peace of mind I may even consider a reinstall.

nikaiyo2

5,975 posts

226 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
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ClamXAV gets my vote.

Beggarall

Original Poster:

596 posts

272 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
quotequote all
TechSignalSearch reappeared and then started replicating itself as I watched on Activity Monitor. TotalAV did not find it - but Malwarebytes did and killed it off - so a big vote for them. I think I will try to get my money back from TotalAV

anonymous-user

85 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
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AVG for me.

Zirconia

36,010 posts

315 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
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Bitfender and Intego have free apps on the app store.

Careful of what you go for. Some are just junk but I don't usually run one. Careful what you down load outside the app store.

Every now and then I run Etre Check, finds out what is dumped by naughty programs that should not be doing whatever.



Edited by Zirconia on Wednesday 4th December 19:29

AndyTR

838 posts

155 months

Wednesday 4th December 2019
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Beggarall said:
I keep getting a message pop up on my Mac about "TechSignalSearch". I thought I had deleted the app but it recurs. Have I caught something nasty? How do i get rid of it? Should I have antivirus installed - if so which? I remember from my Window days that antivirus was often a mixed blessing. Any help appreciated.
This might help https://www.precisesecurity.com/adware/how-to-remo...

C&C

3,916 posts

252 months

Thursday 5th December 2019
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Just to add to previous comments, I'm running a Mac Pro, and a Macbook Pro and have had UBlock for ad blocking and Sophos for A/V installed on both, for at least the last couple of years. They both seem to work very well, and uBlock in particular makes browsing the web bearable again getting rid of all the additional ads.

AJB88

15,959 posts

202 months

Thursday 5th December 2019
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Brave browser, built on Chromium is decent.


I switched from Chrome to Firefox on everything other than my ChromeOS devices a few months ago, Firefox on Android was causing some issues though. Switched to Brave and its decent experience.

Australiam

277 posts

160 months

Thursday 5th December 2019
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AJB88 said:
Brave browser, built on Chromium is decent.


I switched from Chrome to Firefox on everything other than my ChromeOS devices a few months ago, Firefox on Android was causing some issues though. Switched to Brave and its decent experience.
I agree, but watch out if you are using 1Password v6, as it is not supported.