{"id":15987,"date":"2013-07-16T10:31:54","date_gmt":"2013-07-16T17:31:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/?p=15987"},"modified":"2015-03-24T15:10:05","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T22:10:05","slug":"fbi-ransomware-prank-plagues-mac-safari-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intego.com\/mac-security-blog\/fbi-ransomware-prank-plagues-mac-safari-users\/","title":{"rendered":"FBI Ransomware Prank Plagues Mac Safari Users"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"FBI<\/a><\/p>\n

There have been reports<\/a> lately of an irritating prank that ties up the Safari browsers with excessive pop-up windows purporting to be from the FBI, demanding users send $300 to have their browser unlocked. While this is decidedly an obnoxious tactic, it’s not harmful to the user’s system as such, and it can be easily bypassed.<\/p>\n

There are two ways you can do this:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Reset Safari<\/strong>
    \nIn the Safari menu, choose “Reset Safari.” The browser will restart without bringing up the problematic site. It will, however, erase a lot of other historical, saved data.    \"Reset
    \n<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Force Quit + Hold Shift Key While Restarting Safari
    \n<\/strong>The other tactic simply targets the function that resumes open windows after a crash, by holding the shift key while starting Safari. First you will need to force-quit Safari as you would expect, either by going to the Apple menu and choosing “Force Quit” and choosing to quit Safari, or by using the keyboard-combination Command-Option-Escape to bring up the same window. The second step is to hold the Shift key while restarting Safari, which restarts the browser without restarting any previously open windows.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Further Reading:<\/strong>\u00a0New Ransomware Prank Affects Chrome, Safari Browsers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    There have been reports lately of an irritating prank that ties up the Safari browsers with excessive pop-up windows purporting to be from the FBI, demanding users send $300 to have their browser unlocked. While this is decidedly an obnoxious tactic, it’s not harmful to the user’s system as such, and it can be easily […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[55,174,109,115],"class_list":["post-15987","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-security-news","tag-fbi","tag-mac","tag-ransomware","tag-safari"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t