Computer crashed. MRT high CPU. Do I have/did I have malware or is this just an update?
Hi all,
Central Question: MRT suddenly ran and crashed my computer. I see no other signs of suspicious activity and Malwarebytes came up dry. Is this a sign that my computer was/is infected or am I just paranoid?
Situation and context: I was at college when my computer suddenly froze. I thought that this was temporary and attempted to keep working. After about 5 seconds, I realized that it wasn't temporary. I used the Touch Bar to lock the screen as it was the only function of my machine that worked properly. From there, I logged in again using my fingerprint. I did this 2 times. After that, the machine turned off entirely (hard crash, not sleep) and rebooted itself. When I logged back in, activity monitor said that MRT was taking up 90% of my CPU. After 2-3 seconds, however, the program was no where to be found on my activity monitor so I didn't get a chance to check other categories like memory. From the brief seconds that I had, I saw nothing suspicious (no strange/unfamiliar processes). However, this experience spooked me a bit as my family has had some hack/malware problems in the past few months.
Additionally, I keep a copy of Malwarebytes on my machine and I've run scans with that. It comes up empty. I'm careful about clicking links and I think that I've got a reasonably secure machine for a non-tech wizard. I do much of my work on an standard account instead of an admin account (don't know if that helps).
The only software that I've knowingly and willingly downloaded and/or installed on my machine:
- Discord
- Xcode
- BBEdit
- Malwarebytes
- NordVPN
- Office365
- Brave Browser
- Spotify
- Tor Browser (Never ran the installer)
- Mozilla Firefox
Please tell me if I'm just paranoid... I won't be offended!
Technical Information:
- MacBook Pro 13.3in 2560 x 1600
- M1 Chip
- 16GB memory
- macOS BigSur v11.5.2
Thanks!!
-Talia
Resources I've Accessed:
MacBook Pro (2020 and later)
