Joe, I have not said I wanted to download Flash Player. Just the reverse, they tell me I need to update when I don't even have it.
I got it now. It is almost a dead bang guarantee that had you downloaded the Flash Player the download package would have included more malware than you already have, perhaps turning your computer into something like a kiddie porn web hosting.
Now when you say not to use anything from my back up which makes sense but what about apps that I purchased from the App Store and developers which are on my HD?
As those may be infected you should download fresh copies from the App Store and the developer's web sites rather than risk reinfection.
Should copy them to a thumb drive?
As those may be infected you should download fresh copies from the App Store and the developer's web sites rather than risk reinfection. Copying them to a flash drive
will not remove infection it merely preserves it on the new media.
Never having erased my HD before, can you tell me if I will lose anything from the following, apple mail, bookmarks, iTunes, iPhotos, docs or anything else I should know about?
You will lose
ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING and have to start over from scratch. The only possible exceptions would be those Apple functions such as Keychain, Mail, Safari Settings, photos, and calendars that are selected in System Preferences > Cloud to be backed up on your iCloud Drive. You will also lose all of your tunes unless Music > Preferences > Synch Library is checked.
NOTE: If those were not previously checked it can take a day or more after they are first checked for all of the data to be synched with iCloud. So allow time for it to settle.
Nuke and Pave, which is what you are proposing is a
Final Solution option not to be taken or performed lightly. That is why regular prevention is so much better than occasional spot checks and well worth the cost of
paid licenses. It is also why I, and many others, assiduously avoid sites like Torrent.
Given the time and aggravation imposed by
nuke and pave you might consider...
- attempting to remove the infection following the instructions in the links provided and see if the apparent redirection continues,
- invest in paid versions of ClamXAV or MalwareBytes and set them up to run continuously or at very frequent intervals.
- Check your bank and credit card accounts daily for possible fraudulent transactions
- Consider investing in a credit monitoring service
- Being very careful about where you venture on the internet and very security aware
- 🤞
But the choice depends on how risk tolerant you are.