Somebody hacked my computer last night

[Vincardog]

This morning every file on my computer was opened. The one on top was my copy of The Presidents Daily Briefing stating that OBL was determined to attack in the US.

Agent Mike was that you?

Was I visited by Homeland security?

Has his happened to anyone else?

[helderheid]

1. that is creepy. I am turning off my computer!

[Nitrogenica]

2. Curious

do you have a firewall set up on your computer?...What brand?

[Gato Moteado]

3. you're joking right?

nt

[Vincardog]

11. No this is a true fact. Agent Mike was that you?

[Catch22Dem]

4. Whaaaaaaat?

Sounds bizarre. Do you have a wireless router that has wireless security DISABLED?

[SofaKingLiberal]

5. Every file was opened? How many files is that?

[Vincardog]

8. hundreds

[bemildred]

6. Were they all laying open right there on top of it?

Maybe there are fingerprints or crumbs or something.

[Vincardog]

9. Open on the display, Maybe electronic fingerprints

[bemildred]

24. That sounds more like you had an physical intruder.

Someone at your keyboard playing with your machine.

[Vincardog]

7. I have a dial up connection. The computer was turned on and the phone was

hooked up. I have a firewall. The FKtards seem to have snuck up the phone line and done a sneak and peek. Maybe the SS didn't like me being at Camp Casey.

[Seeker30]

15. Sorry, I dont buy it

You're trying to tell us your computer wasnt even connected to the internet and someone connected to it through the phone line? And for every file to to be open most computers dont have the memory for the thousands of files to be open.

[Vincardog]

21. That is what happened. Buy it or not. I am not selling anything just

relaying the facts.

[tocqueville]

18. what firewall ?

any anti-spyware ?

[htuttle]

25. Why are you running a remote access server?

There's no way for them to have done that over the phone, including get some kind of login, without you having set up a remote access server/PPP server of some kind. Computers (Windoze or Macs) aren't configured to allow incoming logins over the phone out of the box.

If you don't know, and this is for real, then unhook your phone line from it until you figure out how to turn it off!

I suppose I could figure out a way to do it remotely with a trojan horse that dialed out to a preconfigured number, but I've never heard of any ones like that.

[KerryOn]

28. You better believe it.

There are Trojan horses that can make a dial up connection, even change the dial up connection to call anywhere they want.

[CountAllVotes]

56. yep I had one of those

it was not detected by a virus scan either. I popped up when suddenly my sound was gone - the sound no longer worked - the only way I can pick up Air America or Guy James. I even took it to the shop and they told me the HD was gone and to dump the laptop. I didn't believe it as the laptop (now old but rarely used) was basically new.

I managed to find the fix to get rid of this Trojan virus and the sound came back after that!

And this was over a year ago too btw ...

Dial-up connection w/firewall too ... ZoneAlarm ....

and I had a message on my Ad-aware scan that picked up that someone tried to hack into my computer but was apparently stopped by the firewall.

:scared:

I'm not liking being online much these days - my mail is not working right overseas I have noticed. :wtf: is REALLY going on ?

And I was not at Camp Casey.

[Horse with no Name]

10. Are you serious?

Does your firewall log any outside breeches?
Creepy.

[Vincardog]

14. I do not know hos to check the Firewall log,

[Horse with no Name]

20. Which one is it? eom

[benburch]

Get a Macintosh, and this will never happen again.

MUCH more secure.

[Cronus Protagonist]

22. Haha - he'll never even be able to *find* his own files again

Never mind have them all opened up. Good idea.


http://brainbuttons.com/home.asp?stashid=13
Buttons for brainy people - educate your local freepers today!

[benburch]

32. You clearly have zero experience with a Macintosh!

They are rock-solid, reliable, and easy to use. And they are UNIX operating system machines, so you can run Apache, MySQL, etc...

[Cronus Protagonist]

35. You clearly jump to erroneous conclusions

I repair computers for a living and I wish I had a dollar for every time a Mac user asked me to find a file he's lost. Mind you, Windows computers have similar problems with clueless users too. I blame the users, not the operating systems, both of which are getting better all the time.

[benburch]

37. I've never lost a file.

And I used to admin 40 macs when I worked for Zenith, and people never had problems like that there, either.

And what is hard about finding a file? You type its name in the little spotlight window at the upper right in any application and there is is.

No, you may fix them, but you've never USED one day in and day out for years as I have.

And lest you call be a Mac bigot, I have two windows machines here in the studio too, and use them every day. In fact, I am certified to write device drivers for Windows-NT and related systems like W2K.

Macs are a much better system.

[Cronus Protagonist]

41. ...and when the finder doesn't find it?

Lost. Lost users too. Perhaps your users were smarter, but I serve lots of small mom and pop companies and I can assure you that people with an IQ of close to 100 on the lower side if the dial have trouble with Macs just as much as with Windows computers.

Your opinion that Macs are a much better system is just that, an opinion, which you are entitled to have. Personally, I think Macs are fine if you don't need to go far off the beaten track with general usage and don't mind a dismal choice of software. Windows machines provide more hardware AND software choices, and have the benefits AND attendant problems that also come with that freedom of choice and open architecture.

I'm personally impressed with the move to OSX, which is far better than anything Apple has ever done by themselves. It's a good move towards a more open software platform, which I think all computer professionals would support, as I do. However, the smug admonitions from Mac users to drink the Apple coolaid is trying to most people's ears, including my own, and I'm not even a Mac hater!

[Art_from_Ark]

43. If the Mac user can't find a file with the "Find" function,

that means they either inadvertantly deleted the file, or they don't remember the file's name.

[Poiuyt]

60. The newest version of Mac's OS, "Tiger," can search by content, not just

file name. Spotlight is a new feature of OS 10.4

[benburch]

45. Never had the finder not find a file.

Maybe I've been lucky?

And I'm not being smug, my professional opinion is that macs are FAR more secure against internet threats than windows boxes. I am not alone in this; The CEO of Intel said the same thing months ago.

[stepnw1f]

54. "Far Off The Beaten Track"?

Unix is pretty versatile?

[Llewlladdwr]

59. And even better now...

That they're just overpriced PCs!

[Dinger]

44. Hell Yeah!

LOVE my iBook!

[benburch]

50. I have an old Tangerine iBook...

The first model, with the single USB port. Not enough disk in it to run OSX, but sufficient for what I do with it which is going out for lunch to the Panera Bread and running White Rose remotely using their WiFi.

Using Apple Remote Desktop (built into OSX) with a free OS9 VNC client program I can even see and interact with the desktop from any WiFi location, so it is almost like having OSX on the old iBook anyway.

Sometimes I use it that way from bed when I'm sick or from our on the porch on nice evenings.

[ScreamingMeemie]

49. I puke on Macintosh.

:puke:

[benburch]

55. You live up to your name!

;)

[ScreamingMeemie]

57. Only on MacIntosh threads....or when I accidentally stumble into GD.

I'm weird that way...:hi: On another note...Ben!!! It's great to see you. It seems like ages.

[mogster]

12. Just to ask the question

No friends making fun of you locally, at home?

[Vincardog]

17. No my roommate is freaked. No joke, We are going to start disconnecting the

phone at night.

[mogster]

39. OK. Does your firewall keep any logs?

You might be able to sniff some info from that.

[mcscajun]

48. Yes, you should definitely turn off the modem at night. Always.

There are programs out there that can dial INTO active dial-up modems.

Meanwhile, you should be running a strong firewall, like ZoneAlarm, or BlackICE.

Also, make sure to check out your entire setup @ http://www.grc.com/default.htm (Gibson Research Corporation)

Run the ShieldsUP! tests against your PC now, and then again once you've beefed up the Firewall software. You'll see the difference. Then run the LeakTest against your new firewall, to be sure you're operating in Stealth Mode (invisible to the world).

[Rainscents]

13. Wow, that is scary!

[FormerRepublican]

16. Agent Mike! Where are you? Come and look in my computer and see...

...how much I despise Bush! I'm posting anti-Bush rants all over Democratic Underground! Collect the evidence on my computer now!

And if you don't like it - read the Constitution!

Neener, neener, neener.

:rofl:

Agent Mike is never around when we need him - New Orleans would have been a good place to show up about 4 days before Bush did.

Agent Mike is a communist. We should be peeking into HIS computer!

:shrug: :shrug: :shrug:

[Poiuyt]

19. You need to switch to Macintosh

There are no spyware, viruses, worms, etc for the Mac platform. VERY secure.

[Vincardog]

23. That reminds me I need to run the spy ware detecting program.

[Rainscents]

26. Down load this software... It's excellent!

I heard about this software when I was listening to Thom Hartmann had the man on his show as guest... OUR GOVERNMENT IS WATCHING US!!!

http://research.sunbelt-software.com/

[Libby2]

47. I downloaded it and used it

my computer is zipping right along.

I have spy-bot and ad Ad Aware, but it found some they missed.

Thank you

[KerryOn]

29. Spy ware or virus software? Two different things. n/t

[KerryOn]

27. What firewall are you using?

Do you know if your firewall blocks outbound connections, as well as inbound connections?
Are you running virus software?
If you are running virus software are you using current definitions?

Most computer hacks are done with a Trojan horse (virus). If you have it on your computer it can make a connection from your computer outbound to a spy bot. Some firewalls only block inbound connections, and these will not prevent an attack form trojan horses.

[Vincardog]

30. I am running what ever came with my AOL security I am ignorant.

Whoever did this did come up my phone line while we slept. It is truly a strange new world. I have to leave for my DFA meeting soon. Do you think there is any connection?

[KerryOn]

36. You had better check your long distance bill.

This happened to a friend of mine. He had a Trojan on his computer and it was dialing out to some foreign country (don't remember where) and uploading porn to his computer. His phone bill was several thousand dollars.

Dump AOL, and have your computer checked out ASAP.

[graywarrior]

31. I disconnect my phone every night and when I leave the house

I trust no one.

[Rainscents]

34. Please check #26... check out the link! This soft ware will remove

all ad ware. When I first installed this and run it, I had 165 adware on my computer. I have excellent Virus and firewall protection (Norton), I guess I was wrong thinking that I was safe!

[graywarrior]

51. What's the cost?

[Ms. Toad]

52. Virus and Adware/Spyware are separate critters

Programs generally are good at getting rid of either Virus critters or Adware/Spyware, but not both. Norton does viruses well, but virtually nothing for Adware (although the Symantec site is good for identification and hand removal of Adware/Spyware).

What happened to the original poster sounds like Adware/Spyware phoning home. They can get pretty nasty.

Try installing (and regularly running) Adaware and Spybot search and destroy. Both have free licenses for non-commercial use.

[shadowknows69]

33. I've had some fairly bizzare internet

happenings lately myself.

[mcscajun]

38. You must not have that many files...

...if every file on my PC opened at once, there'd be smoke comin' out of the hard drive ... for the few seconds before it crashed completely.

[slackmaster]

40. One of my cats did that to my computer once

Now I lock the console whenever I leave it, even for a moment.

[Thtwudbeme]

42. OMG, exact same thought I had! Stinky did that once to me

I woke up and FREAKED!

I still can't figure out how she did that!

[slackmaster]

58. They step on Shift key + arrow keys to select multiple icons

Then Enter to start them up, or Delete to throw them in the Recycle Bin!

I like cats. Cats make your life interesting.

[txindy]

61. That was probably revenge

For naming her 'Stinky'.

[Must_B_Free]

46. One possible explanation

if you had grabbed a buch of files and it somehow got a doubleclick it could have tired to open all of the files at once which took a long time and you didn't notice and went away... Happens to me some times when I go to move a large batch of files; particularly ones like XML and media where the OS is trying to scan each file for details...

If all the open files were in one folder this is possible, if it was recursive then it was a script...

[nonconformist]

53. Sounds like a virus or trojan of some sort to me. nt

[oasis]

62. kick to share info on this thread.

[ima_sinnic]

63. free easy way to check your computer for vulnerability/hackability

I agree with poster above who recommends checking the vulnerability of your ports with Shields Up
http://www.grc.com/default.htm
scroll down to Shields Up
Great site--explains everything. I ran the tests a couple of years ago and found a hole in Windows Plug n Play--very common, and they also have a little program for killing Windows Messenger--anyway, this time it comes up that, from the point of view of a hacker, my computer doesn't even exist. how cool is that.