Imac suddenly has a guest account icon

Last night I logged out of my iMac running Lion and was surprised to see an icon for Guest that was not there before. Under it it stated that the computer would now reboot with a secure login for that user. I immediatly shut down and rebooted the wireless router.  I had just signed up for iCloud, I was also configuring a new Garmin GPS for the car, I had added two patches for Lion and a few days earlier I had activated my account with my service provider using their dedicated router. The wireless account is secured with a new password.  Is this a sign of a virus or hacking? What steps should I take before I turn the computer back on?

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but you have nothing to worry about with a Guest account. Guest accounts allow restricted use of the computer and internet, but will not allow anyone to install or do damage to the installation.
I don't think you need to do anything before turning it back on.
Once it's on, if you want, you can go to System Preferences > Users & Groups and you can turn *off* the Guest account so it doesn't show up on your login screen.

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