What is it: Ransomeware & Malware certainly exists for Mac, but it's more frequently targeted at everyday Windows PCs. The symptoms of these infections vary: slow unstable computers, browser hijacking and home pages redirecting to random sites. At its worse the malware swipes user banking logins and other web sign-in details, creates a backdoor (which allows access to more malicious programs) and prevents access to both antivirus tools and virtual machines. Essentially you are held captive and asked for money to resolve the issues. Even if you pay the money, you are still infected and now have essentially helped fund the Taliban or some other terrorists group. The worst part is a lot of these infections reply on social engineering to fool victims into installing the software themselves. That's right, YOU install these programs while mistaking them for Java, Flash or other harmless system updates.
Advice: If you come across a pop up/screen like the ones we've shown above, find a way to close or back out without actually clicking the window. Many of these programs will still install and run even if you click the (x) or close button. Simply clicking anywhere within the window will allow the program to install and take over your machine. Instead use the ALT+F4 keys to close the window, use Ctrl+Alt+Delete to bring up Task Manager and end the task. If those wont work the click restart or shut down. When all else fails do a hard shut down by hold the power button in for a few secs until the machine goes off. This is not a good thing to do with your computer but it beats allowing a malicious program install and having to battle that. If your able to successfully avoid a possible infection, be sure to do a complete scan of your system with both antivirus and malware removal programs right away. And as always its good habit to scan your systems routinely for even minor threats.
Links:
Free Antivirus software: Microsoft Security Essentials
Free Anti-Malware software: Malwarebytes
Contact us right away if you have any questions or think you may be infected with malware or viruses.