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A new round of ransomware is freezing up Mac computers and iPhones in a criminal attempt to get you to pay hundreds of dollars to supposedly implement a fix.
Read more: 10 free ways to keep your computer virus free
With ransomware, a virus is loaded on your computer or phone and it effectively brings those devices to a grinding halt.
Here’s the m.o. of how this works: You’re on the phone or computer and there’s a clickthrough to a video. The video is infected with a virus that shuts your device down. Then a pop-up window appears saying your device is in lock down and you have to pay $300 to have it unlocked.
The pop-ups may display a message from the ‘U.S.A. Cyber Crime Center,’ ‘FBI Department of Defense’ or some other legit-sounding organization. But there’s nothing legit about it — despite the bogus government seals and maybe even a picture of a stern-looking President Obama.
The Internet Crime Complaint Center reports some ransomware seizes up devices with pop-up windows branded with the FBI logo! The pop-up window typically warn the computer contains ‘child pornography, unlicensed materials or ‘computer-use negligence,’ according to The Cleveland Plain Dealer.
If someone is holding your device hostage for money, never pay the ransom. There’s no way to tell the scammers will do what they say and not load additional viruses on your computer. Second, you’re rewarding bad behavior if you pay them.
Fortunately, there is a way to unfreeze your device yourself…
These directions come courtesy of Apple Support Communities:
Solution (Mac):
Some of these scam popup messages are very easy to dismiss:
Either option may result in interrupting the script preventing you from closing the page normally. If it does, you’re finished. If not, or you grow tired of that method, continue below.
If that does not immediately fix the problem:
Turn Wi-Fi ‘off’
Disconnect Ethernet cable (MacBook Pro)
Disconnect Ethernet cable (iMac)
You’ll be back in business.
In an abundance of caution, consider the following additional actions. They are not required to eliminate the scam webpage but you should review them to determine certain Safari settings have not been unexpectedly altered.
Solution (iOS):
Force Safari to quit by quickly double-clicking the Home button. On that screen, swipe left or right until you find Safari with a preview of the problematic web page. Swipe that image up and away to terminate it:
Force Close (iOS 8)
Force Close (iOS 9)
The unresponsive Safari page will be gone, but if you were to launch Safari again it might just reappear. To prevent that from occurring, go to Settings and scroll down a bit until you see Safari. Tap Safari, then tap Clear History and Website Data. Confirm the dialog that appears next, and you’ll be back in business. The effect of clearing website data will require you to ‘sign in’ again to websites that require authentication (such as this one).
Read more: The lesson Facebook’s CEO just taught everyone about reusing passwords
This post was last modified on March 22, 2017 4:06 pm
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