MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy Trojan Horse Removal

George Herman

IT Security Expert

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What is MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy

MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy belongs to the Trojan Horse category and is a very dangerous virus. It is capable of obtaining personal information from your computer, as well as monitoring you – be it through your web cam and microphone, or by spying on your online activity. If you do not remove it as soon as you find out it has infected your Mac, you risk exposing sensitive information like passwords, credit card numbers, bank accounts, IP addresses, and even documents and photos that you store on your PC! The longer this virus is allowed to stay unattended, the worse your condition will become. Trojan horses are capable of compromising and severely damaging your computer system. If you’re not being careful, it can open backdoors to other parasites that want to harm your Mac.

How it operates

Trojan viruses possess a very important quality – stealth. They can infiltrate quietly, without leaving a trace. For that reason, they are very hard to detect. But once they become active and start damaging the infected computer, there are some common symptoms that point out that a Trojan infection has taken place: slow internet speed, poor overall Mac performance, deleted or corrupted files, modified Registry, surprising installation of unknown software, advertisement attacks, unresponsive applications, etc.

How it is distributed

But how did the MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy Trojan virus managed to infect your Mac? Well, you should know that it didn’t directly hack your computer. It is not as advanced to do it alone. The only way it can gain access to your system, is if you allow it. This can happen by installing freeware, torrent files and software bundles, or by clicking on infected ads, fake update messages or email attachments. In most cases, malicious software is able to invade by being automatically installed on the victim’s computer as ‘additional’. That’s why you need to pay close attention during software installation – make sure that no boxes are ticked next to bonus programs. Often, optional installations are not properly disclosed when you download a program, and their existence can easily be missed. Don’t be careless and naive when you’re installing software on your Mac – cyber criminals count on these flaws to infect your computer.

Staying safe from MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy Trojan horse

Apart from having a reliable AV software installed on your Mac, there are other things you can do to ensure your device’s safety. We highly recommend you to:

• Pay close attention when you install third-party software, especially torrent files, so you don’t install shady additional applications that you don’t want. In most cases, that’s how malicious parasites are able to infect your computer;
• Read any Terms and Conditions you see, so you know exactly what you agree to. The last thing you want is to unknowingly give permission to a nasty virus to infiltrate your Mac;
• Follow links that lead to trustworthy sites only;
• It is best to visit only reliable and official websites. You never know what dangers might lurk behind an unfamiliar site;
• No matter how attractive an ad is, if you are not familiar with the website it redirects to, it might be best to steer clear of it and not click;
• Always check the sender’s email address before opening a message. If it states that it’s from an official company, compare the email with the one given in their official page. If there is no match, delete the message, since it most likely is fake and has malicious aims;
• Don’t open email attachments from unknown senders. More often than not, such files carry infections that can seriously damage your computer.

How to manually remove MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy Trojan horse from Mac

If you’ve had the misfortune of getting your Mac infected with the MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy Trojan Horse, the instructions below can help you to remove it manually. Here’s what you need to do:

1. First, start by finding all registry entries added by MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy and deleting them. You do this by holding down the Option key while looking at the Go menu in Finder to access the ~/Library folder. Find all related entries and delete them one by one.

2. Go to Utilities. You can do that by using the ⇧+⌘+U key combination, or by going to Finder and choosing Utilities from the Go main menu at the top.

3. Find Activity Monitor and double-click it.

4. A list will be displayed. Find any processes that seem suspicious to you and use the ‘Force Quit‘ option to quit them completely.

5. Open Finder. Click on the Go button from the main menu at the top, and choose Applications. An alternative way is to use the ⇧+⌘+A key combination.

6. Look for any suspicious applications, especially ones with a name similar to MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy. If any are found, right-click on them and select the ‘Move to Trash‘ option.

7. Remove any related left-over files by going to Finder‘s search bar and typing the name of the app you want to remove. Make sure to modify the two drop down menus above to ‘System Files‘ and ‘Are Included‘, so that any hidden files are visible for you to remove. Once you find the files you want to remove, simply drag them to Trash.

8. All that’s left for you to do is remove any related extensions to MAC.OSX.Monitor.SniperSpy from your Mac browsers.

For Mozilla Firefox extensions:

• Open the Firefox browser and from the ‘burger’ menu in the top right corner of the window select ‘Add-ons’.
• Select any suspicious extensions that may be related to the virus and click ‘Remove’.

For Google Chrome extensions:

• Open the Chrome browser and select Tools > Extensions from the menu (the three dots in the top right corner of the browser window).
• Locate any suspicious extensions that may be related to the virus and remove them.

For Safari extensions:

• Open the Safari browser. From the Safari menu choose Preferences. Select Extensions from the options at the top.
• Find any extensions you think are related to the virus, select them and click ‘Uninstall’. A new window will show up asking for confirmation. Click Uninstall again, for the extension to get deleted permanently from your browser.