Malware

Chromeisbad.com

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Loren Brichter, creator of the Tweetie (now Twitter) app and the pull to refresh interaction technique, created Chromeisbad.com days ago, after realising that completely removing Google Chrome and the Chrome Updater (also known as Keystone), solved all the performance issues he had with his MacBook Pro and his family’s iMac.

This is not a new development, it is not a Chrome “bug”. Most seasoned Mac users know that having Chrome installed on your Mac is the modern equivalent of having Norton Antivirus for Mac installed – it basically makes your brand new Mac into a years-old one, and an old Mac into one that seemed like its on the verge of its death. Getting rid of Chrome and Keystone has always been one of our first pieces of advice for anyone having performance issues on macOS.

Keystone, in particular, have been widely reported about in the news outlets for doing nefarious things to the system, being referred to by many (even some very very smart people) as malware. Just a year ago it was responsible for modifying system files that resulted in a large number of production Macs crashing.

If you need a browser that renders like Chrome, aka Chromium browsers, some of the popular ones to try are Brave, Vivaldi and even Microsoft Edge. I personally only use Brave on my Google Pixels and they run way faster than the built in Chrome (the ad blocking is a bonus).

Hit up Chromeisbad.com for the instructions to remove Chrome and especially Keystone, for it will sneakily reinstall itself in different parts of the system if you just delete it in the user library without removing Chrome (or other Google apps).

Have a brand new M1 Mac? Remember, DO NOT INSTALL CHROME.

Top 4 Malware for Mac OS X

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Yes, malware does exist for OS X, and these are the top 4 malware on the radar today.

1. Norton Antivirus for Mac
2. Symantec Endpoint Protection
3. Sophos Antivirus Protection for Mac
4. McAfee VirusScan for Mac

In case anyone thinks I’m joking or that there are malware pretending to be these legitimate software, I’m not, and there isn’t (or at least from what I know so far).

Take for example, Norton Antivirus(NAV) and Symantec Endpoint Protection, both of which are probably the same thing, except that you get the former if you enter a certain polytechnic and the latter if you enter another one. Both products, upon installation, installs a kernel extension. This modifies the system, and from experiences of students who were forced to run them in school, makes the system extremely unstable, especially after system updates. In the case of Norton Antivirus, very often installing the package (note that I didn’t use the word App here, for Norton Antivirus is anything but a useful mac application)itself may cause the boot sequence to fail in the future (read: spinning indicator with Apple logo on grey background forever).

Installing NAV or any other Symantec products on your Mac will also almost definitely cause your system to have poor performance, although it might not seem apparent immediately after install, for a clean and new system can look and feel fast enough even after the performance cut. Six months down the road however, NP students and SDN/SDMC students from NYP will think they need a new Mac already.

Many users with the above malware do not have a choice in the installation. Often times when they purchase their brand new Mac from their schools, it is already preloaded with malware. And in the case of NAV and Symantec products, it is almost impossible to remove. Contrast that with the recent MacDefender non-issue, when you actually have to install it yourself, give it the correct permissions, before it will actually run. And removal is a simple process. Activate Activity Monitor, kill the process, and trash the app.

No matter how you look at it, malware like Norton Antivirus and the Symantec products are definitely some of the deadliest you will ever find on the Mac platform.

Thankfully the majority of Mac users are well-educated enough that they do not need to install the above products, and will probably never do so.

The only people who gets hit with MacDefender are the idiots who thought they needed an anti-malware/antivirus program on the Mac in the first place, and chose to install MacDefender onto their systems happily. These are also the same idiots who will install Norton Antivirus on their systems from day 1. And obviously Norton Antivirus isn’t going to protect them, since it can’t even identify MacDefender as malware.

If you are one of those unfortunate enough to have NAV installed on your systems unwillingly, GET HELP NOW.