Source https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/macbook-air-2020-m1
What Is Zeus Malware and How to Remove It from Your Mac
Have you been hit by a “Zeus Virus Detected’ warning when you were browsing the internet on your Mac? It’s one of the fake virus alerts that hijack web browsers, and it may often seem that your browser is completely locked up until you take action. Read on to learn what you should do if you notice a Zeus malware alert on your Mac.
What Should You Do If You See a Zeus Virus Alert?
The truth is that Zeus Virus or Zeus Trojan malware is a malicious program that is targeted on Microsoft Windows operating system and is also used to steal user financial data. Besides, it creates a botnet controlled by a malware’s owner, which allows them to execute large-scale attacks or collect huge amounts of information. But it was never supposed to be used for Macs, so it can’t infect your Mac and do something damaging to it.
Mac users can see a fake Zeus virus alert in a pop-up window when they visit an infected website. Its goal is to scare you into thinking that your computer is badly infected and urge you to take an immediate action and call a specified phone number to get technical support in removing the virus.
Since Zeus can infect only Windows computers, just ignore this alert if you see it on Mac. Infected websites show the pop-up with Zeus virus alert to all their visitors no matter what their operating system is in spite of the fact that it doesn’t make sense for Mac users.
You should just close the window and forget about the threat. But you should remember that website and never visit it again. Still, fake alerts are persistent, so it may be impossible to close the window. Then, you need to Force Quit your browser. And when you launch it again, you should not select the option to re-open all the windows or tabs that were previously opened.
What else can you do? Here are your possible actions:
- Get rid of suspicious browser extensions
- Clear the browser history and restart it
- Reset your browser setting to default values
- Uninstall your browser and reinstall it from scratch
Source https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT201276
If for any reason, you are unable to Force Quit your browser, then you should just restart your device.
How to Remove It from Your Mac?
In fact, there is nothing to remove. Your Mac computer has no malware. As we have already said, Zeus virus alert is just a scam technique because this malicious code does not infect machines running macOS. It only targets Windows PCs. Remember that this fake alert is not a virus, so you don’t need to remove it from your Mac.
Typically, the alert doesn’t have any links you can click – there is only a telephone number to call. Don’t call that number because it’s a premium rate number and if you call it, they may try to steal your money or your personal information. But sometimes, there may be a link. If you click it, it will download malware to your device. So you should never click on any link in any pop-up that claims your Mac computer has a virus or other type of malware.
If you see a fake alert, the best solution is to completely ignore it and close the pop-up window or quit your browser. And if you want to avoid seeing fake alerts, you should be cautious when it comes to the types of websites you visit. For example, you should avoid sites that offer you to download for free those apps or programs that you would normally have to pay for.
