How do I get rid of virus from my Mac OS X Pc?

My PC has always been in the best of its condition always. I have taken special care of it and have always made sure; it has not even the slightest of flaws in it. I have always used my PC in a very careful manner. But recently, a very unfortunate thing has happened which has left me into a very deep situation of guilt. Guilt of a very high intensity, I must say. I have realized my pc has finally been attacked by a Virus which was so unexpected. It thus happens that whenever I try to use my Safari to browse on net, it works perfect for a considerable amount of time and suddenly it crashes which leaves me with an expression of *Question Mark*. I shows that the crash is due to some .FIFANO.so Plugin.

I am disappointed with this for sure, but I know instead of panicking in such a situation, I should instead be looking for ways of getting rid of it. So, I am here, looking of some genuine help with respect to this issue of mine. Thanks a million for all help that I hope to pour in

I totally understand what a computer lover goes through when such unwanted issues happen as a hurdle to the beautiful computing experience that he/she’s being having all this while. For someone equally obsessed with the computer it would be like chopping me off! :P was that a bit too much? Ok! Anyways, I am a bit more cautious and as a result of which I like doing a research on a potential problem even before it rises to attack me. So, that research of mine, is going to prove useful for you I guess. I think you have been infected by a very varied kind of a variant which is is called ‘FlashBack’ or ‘FakeFlash’ malware in common terms. These are common, generic slang terms and holds no significance with the working of the malware or so. It is basically a malicious software which is smartly developed to take advantage of one of the security flaws in Java so that it can install itself on Macs easily.
There are software updates launched by Apple for OS X Lion and Mac OS X which is capable enough of updating java and fixing the problem with the security issue pertaining to java. As a matter of fact, Mac is also capable of automatically checking and installing software updates regularly. But this setting can be changed and you can manually download the update which is mentioned.

That was a very useful piece of advice I must say. To know the issue is half job done I guess and I whole heartedly appreciate your gesture of sharing this information with me and other readers. Also, your kindness of spending the effort that you once made for yourself on someone else is a commendable thing. But in a situation which I am now, I might but I don’t want to sound ungrateful when I say that the information you provided is not going to solve my issue, I want more solid solution, not a wiki information. I would appreciate a solution or a fix to this unwanted threat to the very peaceful existence of my PC only. I am looking forward for the same from you or some other expert.

In case you are aware of the time when and how did this issue take place and from when exactly are you facing this kind of problem, you can simply restore the system with a very close date’s backup instead of sitting and restoring a very old backup, it is almost double the effort and might even yield some negative effects on your, the problems are senseless to be discussed here.
In order to find out when did the infection take place, all you need to do is try and remember when did this issue of freezing and all start at your end. If you are unaware of the time when you were actually infected things will not get worse as the most reliable way to remove an intelligent malware is by knowing it’s entrance date, otherwise it becomes a bit difficult because of its constantly changing nature

What I would suggest you to do at this point of time is to simply and meticulously follow the following steps:

- You first need to create a backup of all the data you have in your system, i.e. only if you are yet to do it in recent times.
- F-secure has come up with a removal tool which is used to remove such malware and have almost always helped.
this tool must technically solve the entire issue you were talking about and must remove the viral threat from your system in an excellent manner. But just in case it doesn’t, then you need not panic at all. All you need to do is follow some basic steps:
- Firstly, you should be booting your system from the recovery partition or the installation disk, then from there you need to launch Disk Utility from where you need to put the volume of startup to complete mute. This will delete your entire volume file
- Go and get your pc connected to internet and from there, install the Mac OS
- After this, you need to reboot your system and then again follow all the initial setup processes that ever existed for creation of account but make sure the new name is nothing different from the old one. Do not run your restore at this stage
- After that run the software update, please note that you might need to run it more than once for proper updation of your system
- Leave alone library and restore all other things that exist at the top-most level subfolders of your home from the last back up. Library files are potential carriers of malware so make sure you stay away from that.
- Restoration is a difficult task in this regard because of the correct choices of folders and files to be restored
- Out of all the files and folders that you can possibly see in the finder, you can safely restore files like: Audio, Calendars, ColorSync, Colors, Favorites, FontCollections, Fonts, Images, Keychains, Mail (except Mail/Bundles), Safari (except Safari/Extensions)
- And avoid or rather do not attempt restoring folders like: Application Support, Internet Plug-Ins, LaunchAgents, Preferences
- You can restore these folders only if the time machine snapshot are available and you are sure that they are older that the infection date.
- There might be folders which are not mentioned by me, if you find them doubtful don’t take risk by restoring.
- Never ever restore any hidden files or folder, hidden things are the ones which deserves maximum attention
- Another method to do all this by launching Safari browser, going to safari, followed by preferences which leads to the security tab in the menu bar. Then, uncheck the label which asks where java is to be enabled. There exists many unknown bugs and flaws with java which makes it very very unsafe to be used on internet. Disable the java web plugin unless and until you mandatorily need it. There are very few websites bearing genuine and reliable java content, in case you happen to crash to one, enable java on a temporary basis.
- After completing all the above mentioned steps, make sure you have all of the above things, then change every internet passwords including all your bank passwords. Also, keep a check on every financial accounts you have and make sure that there has been no unauthorized access in it.
- Redownload and reinstall all the third-party software freshly because the ones in the backups are not at all safe to be reused
- Mandatorily, disable java in every third party browser that you use,

otherwise you are prone to attacks again

Before you go ahead with this, I would like you to try these basic steps of troubleshooting so that you can prevent from the restoration and all.

• In case your browser is used to automatically starting the download process, simply delete and remove the installer
• End the browser, to do this you can either use the standard method of File> Quit path or the shortcut of Option+Q if none of these seem to work then force it to quit by pressing Command-Option-Esc
• Go to the downloads folder where the recently downloaded files are saved and drag the installer to the trash can
• Go to finder of the recycle bin where you will come across the empty trash option, click on it and empty it
• The PC will start scanning your computer, so do not forget to either move it velar the view or close it for time being
• Go to the Utilities folder, chose the applications folder from there and launch the Activity Monitor application
• There will be a number of processes that will appear in the Activity Monitor application, select all of them
• Check out the names of all the list of processes present in the activity monitor application
• Select all the running files named MacDefender, MacSecurity or MacProtector or anything of this sort. They are viruses
• After selecting all these viruses, click the Quit process button and then press the quit button
• Go to file menu of the activity monitor application and then click on the quit button, or chose the Option+Q option to quit
• Go to the applications folder and find the files which can possibly be viruses, namely: MacDefender, MacSecurity or MacProtecto
• Go to finder of the recycle bin where you will come across the empty trash option, click on it and empty it

Bang On that was buddy! That was such an awesome solution I tell you everything was so perfect. I did everything that you said and the system is currently working nothing less than perfect. I am very glad I came here looking for a solution I could not ask for a more detailed, step-by-step solution. Trust me, I was afraid I will turn out to be some depression patient because of this virus attack. Thanks a million, all those other readers looking for a solution in the same issue will be so grateful for this solution. Anyways, I would request a bit of a trouble more for you. Can you please list down the safety precautions to be taken to stay away from such malware because I am a firm believer of the prevention is better than cure, theory.

That is an excellent question to ask and I would like to list down three basic rules for this which even I follow:

- The most basic rule for every Mac user should be to always install the Mac OS X Security Updates and that too the soonest possible. As a matter of fact, Apple has all the systems where in you are forced to do so with compulsion and regular notification as soon as a new Security update is launched. Also, the security mechanism helps you update incase you have missed any of the previous ones. Also the fact that they come with digital signatures help you stay safe from any other threats in forge of updates too
- Never ever download or install updates or softwares from an unreliable source or untrusted website. Mac provides you an assistance with this also by asking you if you know a website or trust the source before installing it
- Also, do not miss to install important antivirus and anti malware software. Some solutions that can be used on mac are as follows: AntiVirus X, McAfee VirusScan, Sophos Anti-Virus, VirusBarrier X5, and the free

ClamXav.