They get away with it because their adware is often hidden in the fine print of a long installation agreement that most people skip over.
#How to check my mac for malware software#
Sounds pretty shady, right? So why doesn’t the Mac anti-malware program catch these guys? Typically, the makers of adware are hiding in plain sight, operating as actual corporations who claim to sell software on the level.
Once in your system, adware changes the way your browser behaves by injecting ads into web pages, causing pop-up windows or tabs to open, and changing your homepage or search engine-all in the name of funneling advertising dollars away from companies who pay for online ads and into their own accounts. It either disguises itself as legitimate or piggybacks on another program in order to be installed. Most people don’t willingly download programs whose sole purpose is to bombard you with ads, so adware has to sneak its way onto your Mac. Your Mac is infected…with adwareĪdware is software that’s designed to display advertisements, usually within a web browser. For those folks we have one word: adware. (Most cybercriminals are focused on infecting PCs.) And three: There’s just not a lot of Mac malware out there.īut that’s changing, and fast: Mac malware has increased by 230 percent in the last year alone. Most Mac users don’t know this, and assume their Mac is fine. Two: Macs are not plagued by a high number of attacks. One: They’ve got a built-in anti-malware system called XProtect that does a decent job of catching known malware. There are a lot of reasons Mac users don’t sweat getting infected.