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Had a couple of these now, one on a pc telling me it was the police because I had been illegally downloading, the second on a Mac with a scammy help desk 'threat detection '. What can you do about them and what anti virus software will prevent them?
It depends on the attack vector, ie, is it just a web page or is it malware downloaded on to the PC.
If it's webpages then none, the page can effectively load what it wants within the confines of the browser configuration, these are mostly harmless though unless you download the malware they tell you too. You can disable plugins not in use and keep browser allowed stuff down to a minimum to stop it running anything too malicious.
Malware any decent AV should stop them from installing but it can't protect the user from the user. ie, If you click it and authorise it to run then that's your error.
If you click it and authorise it to run then that's your error.
^^This^^ even in a locked-down environment with excellent AV protection we struggle to stop users from doing stuff like this. A hardware firewall that can do proper thoughtful packet inspection might save you (sonicwall, MWG or similar). But really its down to not clicking on the "yes please install this random toolbar that I've never heard of" dialogue box.
Disable Flash.
ftfy[s]Disable[/s] don't install Flash
These do seem like web pages rather than actual viruses
Is unfortunately true.even in a locked-down environment with excellent AV protection we struggle to stop users from doing stuff like this
Try using the Chrome or Edge browsers. They seem quite good at blocking sites that push malware
If you want to change AV soft then I like eSet at work but at home I just use the built in Windows one
And if you are visiting a site that you are not sure about, open in an incognito window so if it starts a cycle of not letting you close windows/quit etc, you can simply restart the machine and the incognito window will have been forgotten so it can't re-open it.
Or (alternatively) change your settings so you don't reopen active windows on restart.
Or both I guess.
Chrome is great at blocking actual malware, and any good adblocker will also knock out malware as part of the deal.
As above, web pages and popups not viruses - they do try and make them look/sound like viruses though. On Mac you just ignore them, ime in 10 years of being primarily on Mac I have never had a virus attack (fingers crossed).
^^^ good advice about Chrome/ingognito - I have started to use it quite a bit having previously only used Safari in exactly the way suggested above
With a Mac you can just hold down shift when launching Safari to have it forget all the previously opened tabs.I have started to use it quite a bit having previously only used Safari in exactly the way suggested above
My top tips for Mac security would be having a separate user & admin account, installing Little Snitch and having a backup that is not left mounted all the time.
Ive read somewhere that mobile accounts are suffering these sort of ransom attacks, not sure of the mechanism, though.