I didn't refresh firefox but an "Old Firefox Data" folder showed up on my desktop. Is this a security breach?
I read through a couple of posts to see why this folder mysteriously appeared on my desktop. All of the posts that I read indicated that the user would have had to purposely caused this to happen by making firefox refresh itself. I don't even know where is Refresh on Firefox. I did not do any refreshing of firefox as indicated by the screen shots in other posts. Why did the refresh happen on its own and and should I be alarmed that it could be a security breach of some sort or some one trying to hack into my computer.
I don't know it this is related to the Old Firefox Data folder appearing, but yesterday I had received an email from some Postmaster saying some email could not be delivered, but I did not send any email to that recipient.
thank you
Выбранное решение
A sophisticated attacker wouldn't leave a folder on your desktop; all traces would be hidden. It's hard to think of why anyone would use the Refresh feature, unless they wanted to strip your add-ons for some reason. ??
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I think it's very unusual for Firefox to refresh itself; I haven't heard of it happening lately.
Probably the most common way users discover the feature is that Firefox displays a bar indicating that it is starting slowly and you can speed it up by restoring some default settings. If you click that button, Firefox runs the refresh feature. Does that sound familiar?
If you look at the last modification time of the Old Firefox Data folder and its contents, were you away from the computer at that time? Does anyone else have access to your computer?
Open the Old Firefox folder. What are the dates of the folders inside?
Thank you for your feedback. In all honesty, I can't be sure that I did not click on a button if it popped up and said Firefox was running slowly. But what I find odd is that the folder and all of its contents are dated from last Monday- Nov, 16th at 9:28 am and I'm just noticing the folder on my desktop on Nov 25th. I keep a rather neat and clutter free desktop and I should have noticed a new folder, especially one with such a long name, but I only noticed this folder yesterday.
In the event that I did not hit the refresh button, is it possible that this is some kind of security breach and if it is, what should I do about it to protect my computer, by the way I'm on a Mac desktop using OS 10.9.5
Выбранное решение
A sophisticated attacker wouldn't leave a folder on your desktop; all traces would be hidden. It's hard to think of why anyone would use the Refresh feature, unless they wanted to strip your add-ons for some reason. ??
Have you noticed anything missing or changed? Any problems at that time?
No I haven't notice anything changed or different. oh yes one thing, Yahoo started being used as my search engine, where as previously I set Google to be my search engine.
Have you fixed that issue?
Type about:addons<enter> in the address bar to open your Add-ons Manager. Hot key; <Control>(Mac:<Command>)<Shift> A)
In the Add-ons Manager, on the left, select Extensions. Remove Yahoo Anything. Now do the same in the computers Programs Folder.
Windows: Start > Control Panel > Uninstall Programs. Mac: Open the "Applications" folder. Linux: Check your user manual.
After the problem is fixed, Bookmark and use this; Download the Mozilla Search Reset {web link} This add-on is very simple: on installation, it backs up and then resets your search preferences and home page to their default values, and then uninstalls itself. This affects the search bar, URL bar searches, and the home page.