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whobenis

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2017
1
0
Long story here. But, I need some help ensuring that my computer is not doing anything it should not be... Essentially, My ex was revealed to be a very bad person, and I have a court order to keep him away. One night I awoke to find him frantically trying to close out some windows on my computer, to which he had full access. He failed to remove a preference pane for "FUSE for Mac"

Now, I'm aware of FUSE as a program and have used it myself to write to NTFS drives from my mac. That said, I then found out he was running all of these crazy websites for explicit material, and had signed up for a social network platform-building service, using my e-mail.... This company was called BoonEx. I canceled whatever it was he signed up for, and have wiped my SSD etc.. but I'm still feeling like I should triple-check all of my bases due to the amount of really messed up stuff that he was trying to do to me.(won't get into the court cases and whatnot here)...

Part of my feeling a need to mention the FUSE program is that I do not know what this can do with network drives, or really anything beyond writing to and from drives in any FS. I have used veracrypt once or twice before in the past and am aware that it can be used in conjunction with FUSE for Mac to hide operating systems, etc, and a plethora of other things.

Since I got away from him, My Mac hasn't stopped acting funky. I'll attach some screenshots of the odd behaviors, if ya'll can help me out here. Now... I am fairly good with computers but I found out he is exceptionally skilled with them from what I dug up on him, in his absence. He's got easily 10 years experience on me, and while I'm not sure what it means, an SIC for semiconductor manufacturing as well, on his old company...

Can anyone let me know what kind of diagnostic logs etc... would be helpful to post so that I can get an accurate diagnosis of my full system? I'm not very familiar with Mac, and was just recently getting a bit more familiar with linux. Have used Windows my whole life prior to the past year or so.

Thanks for the help.
[doublepost=1511685268][/doublepost]Oh, and I'm running 10.11.6 on my MacBook Pro currently.... Have access to my other computers that are running linux & windows, if necessary for troubleshooting or fixes.
 
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What I'd do:

1. Download CarbonCopyCloner, which is free to download and use for 30 days.
2. Use CCC to create a cloned backup of your internal drive on an external drive.

3. Get a USB flashdrive 16gb (or larger).
4. Get a fresh copy of the El Capitan installer
5. Use "Boot Buddy" (also free) to create a BOOTABLE USB flash drive installer for El Cap
6. Boot from the flashdrive.
7. Before installing go to Disk Utility and Erase the internal drive. NUKE IT
8. Reinstall a completely clean copy of the OS
9. Create a new account for yourself.

10. Now, reinstall your apps. If you're concerned about security, re-download fresh copies of the apps and use those installers.

11. Once you have the new OS, apps and account set up, now... VERY CAREFULLY migrate your old files "by hand". Pick and choose from the cloned backup.
Note: you will need to mount the backup drive icon on the desktop, go to "get info", unlock the lock (at bottom), then put a checkbox into "ignore ownership on this volume". Otherwise, you could have permissions problems when "manually migrating" files.

If this ain't enough, throw out the old MacBook and get a new one.
 
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I would forget about examining diagnostic logs. The best approach would be to assume that he could wipe his footprints.

Before Step #1...

0.1. Change ALL of your passwords, including all of the users on your Mac (and other devices in your home). Note that your ex-partner may have installed key loggers or other spyware on your devices, so assume that he can compromise those devices again, whether it be locally or remotely.

0.2. Install a new privacy lock on a room in your house then put all your connected devices in that room so this person has no physical access to them.

0.3. Change all passwords for cloud-based services such as webmail, iCloud, Dropbox, Google, etc. If at all possible, do this on a system that he has never had any access to, like a friend's machine or perhaps one at work. Don't forget your financial services accounts and other important websites you may access.

0.4. Follow Fishrrman's advice through Step 9.

9.1. Create your new account with a completely different, never-before-used password.

Keep in the back of your mind the possible necessity of setting up entirely new accounts. Assume that he is more crafty and wily than you.

Best of luck.
 
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