Hijacked by Malware: My Wife’s Perpetual Search Woes

I’ve used Macs since 2004. I’ve never gotten a virus. I’ve never had a virus try to trick me into installing it. I’ve never sniffed any malware on any of my Macs, and Friends was still on the air when I started using Macs. The Curse of the Bambino hadn’t been broken. Ronald Reagan still lived. Same-sex marriage was illegal in all 50 United States. It’s been a long time.

I’ve gone all these years without any threat, and yet: every time I touch my wife’s Mac, she’s got some type of malware. Almost invariably, something has hijacked her browser search engine. You type a search term into her browser address bar, and some raggedy interface with the aesthetics of urban decay pops up. I ask her how she gets into these messes, and she claims not to know. And I’m left to wonder how many of my personal details she’s sent to the Ukraine through sketchy search plugins.

A few moments with Google (from another machine) and some directed pointing and clicking always repair the immediate damage. Today’s cleanup involved removing a Device Profile, so I’m pretty sure these attacks involve tricking her into entering her password. I’m not sure what she’s doing, though, to get hit so often with search engine malfeasance. I’m tempted to send her this link, but would probably get very few laughs. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I remember hearing her say, “I downloaded an app to . . . .”

I told her no more apps. And never to enter her password. We’ll see how long this lasts.