Mac Shield

Mac Shield is a fake security program, which is a clone of Mac Guard. It targets Macbooks despite the common opinion that Macbooks are resistant to various types of malware. Generally, Mac Shield works as any rogue antispyware, by pretending to be a security program which detects numerous errors in the computer. However, protecting the computer is not the main purpose of Mac Shield. In fact, it does not have an ability to do that. Instead, it wants to make the users cough up their cash as soon as possible by offering a completely worthless product.

The main mean of Mac Shield’s distribution is through hijacked sites and faked search results. It is easy for the creators of this rogue to use the most popular search keywords, and make their site, which distributes Mac Shield, appear at the top of the result list. Then if the user clicks one of these links, a prompt appears saying “Windows Security has found critical process activity on your PC and will perform fast scan of system files”. The only way to get rid of the notification is to click “OK” button. However, the fact that the user is being prompted about Windows Security when he is running on Mac OS should be suspicious already.

Once the “OK” button is hit, a Windows OS interface window appears and a “fast scan” is performed. This is where the user should realize that the whole thing is a scam already. Needless to say, that after the “scan” the infection will start downloading a ZIP file for Mac Shield automatically, and after the installation the program launches automatically.

Mac Shield performs a fake system scan at once, at the same time sending various fake security notifications, which say things like:

Unregistered Copy
Sorry, the copy of your program is unregistered. Register to have an ability to cleanup your system.

Virus Found
Infected file detected:
Virus: Spyware
File: Terminal

Since Mac Shield is a malicious and fraudulent program the user must ignore all the messages and the scan results, because in the end, the only thing that this program wants is to rip the user off. It offers a lifetime protection for $79.95, but that would never work out. The only way out of this situation is deleting Mac Shield for good. No good can come out of allowing this program to stay in the computer, so one must remove Mac Shield as swiftly as possible.

Mac Shield Manual Removal Instructions

1. Make sure the instructions are easily accessible for you during all the stages of removal. Print them out if need be.
2. There is a red (close) button at the left top of Mac Security window. Click it to close the program.
3. Click a clear part of your desktop to select and option from the Finder menu. When the menu appears choose -->Go --> Utilities.
4. When Utilities folder appears on the screen, double-click on the Activity Monitor.
5. Once you can see the Activity Monitor, there is a list of programs that are currently running. Find MacSecurity process among them and click “Quit Process” to terminate it. When you are prompted whether you really want to stop the process, hit the “Force Quit” button. Close Activity Monitor.
6. Now, with the Finder still open, select --> Go --> Applications. MacSecurity should be there as well, displayed among the list of programs. Right click on it, and choose “Move to Trash option from the menu. If Mac OS asks you for our password, type it in. Afterwards MacSecurity should be deleted from the system.
7. Now click on Apple Menu and select System Preferences. When the menu opens, choose Accounts under the System category. Not click on the Login Items. Now you will see a list of programs which are supposed to start automatically once the computer loads. Find MacSecurity among them and single-click on it. Now lick on the minus (-) button at the left corner, right below the program list.
8. Now change Safari settings so that it would not be able to open Mac Security anymore. Open the program and choose the menu. Select “Preferences” and wait for another menu to open. Choose “General Settings”. And the bottom of the screen you will see an “Open “safe” files after downloading” checkbox. Uncheck it. Now you close the System Preferences and Safari menus.

If you followed step after step, Mac Shield should have disappeared from your computer already.