Spyware, viruses, & security forum: Poll: Has your personal computer ever been hacked?

Ihave worked in information technology for over 40 years. I have heard about, and seen, "hacked" computer. In ALL cases it was a lack of diligence in using Anti-Malware, Anti-Spyware and a daily look in what condition the Firewall was. I firmly believe that, if you think you do not have to do all this, you will do twice as much afterwards. But, I have a weird example how dangerous Anti-Virus Software itself can get: the Prime Example: Kaspersky. I was not prepared for their kind of tricks. I downloaded a 30-day trial. Kaspersky constantly interrupted my work. ON TOP OF THAT, THEY HAD ACTUALLY LOCKED THEIR PIECE OF HIGHLY ADVERTISED JUNKWARE. I had to pay $140 for a company in Toronto to unlock what this weirdos from Russia or the Ukraine had done, and done so on purpose. So, I have one warning: BE CAREFUL WITH TRIAL SOFTWARE AND THE RESULTS THE TRIAL GIVES YOU AS OPPOSED TO THE VALUES ONCE YOU BOUGHT THE DAMN THING. NOTHING LIKE THAT EVEN REMOTELY EVER HAPPENED AGAIN.

It was awful. I ended up with all off these Trojans and then I believe I was hacked because Dora Explorer sounds started playing without my web browser being opened. (I was using Chrome but that stopped working over the viruses so I got Firefox which eventually got hijacked) I had been emailing a security expert over and he took me through the usual, download MBAM, Anti Spyware, PC Cleanup(Or something like that) He eventually mentioned Combo Fix but said that he "Didn't know enough about Windows 7 and would be nervous advising me to use it) So I didn't but a few days later we have been trying to get it off but we couldn't so I thought screw it, I'm getting Combo Fix, my computer is already messed up, what can I lose. So I ignored all of those warnings about advice from an expert and downloaded it myself and scanned it. It did find most of the viruses but not all of them. It made my computer run without Safe Mode without crashing. I tried do download Avast (My computer has previously been protected by Kaspersky which got destroyed by the virus and was useless) but the installation failed due to the remaining viruses. I then tried AVG which installed fine. About five seconds after the install finished it crashed. The install had finished in time. When I started my computer again AVG began detecting the Trojans and attempting to block them. I did a scan with AVG and it found several. I then scanned with MBAM and the other tools to get what it missed. Today my computer is virus free but the damage is done. The Media Player no longer works, Kadpersky doesn't work due to a missing or corrupt DLL file, and Windows 7 Service Pack 1 always fails to install which just pisses me off.

Not to my knowledge it hasn't. I am extremely careful while online. I keep my computer "cleaned out" after being online using disk cleanup as well as a wonderful
software product by Webroot called "Window Washer", which I have been using for several years now.

I also never click on links, either sent to me by people I'm familiar with or any link, period. I type the link in myself.

So far, so good. Hope I never get hacked!!

I quit using Norton years ago. I tried it in the beginning of XP's history. It ran anywhere BUT in the background, continually ranted, crashed programs if they were not written specifically with Norton in mind, was wholly IMPOSSIBLE to completely uninstall without wiping a hard drive, continually ranted AFTER uninstalling, and the whole experience reached the level of concluding that Norton, itself, was MALWARE in the first order.
If there is the first hint of a Norton item in a new computer, it is the FIRST thing that is removed. For all I know, it's much improved, but I don't care to find out.

I use Microsoft Security Essentials for antivirus protection as well as spyware protection. I make sure virus definitions are up to date; also spyware definitions.

I regularly back up my computer and make sure the firewall is activated (Microsoft Security Essentials will let me know if it isn't). Never the less I check myself to make sure all is working as necessary. I also download updates and security patches from Microsoft.

As I posted earlier, one cannot be too careful when online. Had the offer for Norton A/V; glad I didn't take it! Had Norton in the past, but chose not to use it this time.

1. I use Windows Vista Genuine Install Disk
2. I don't use any third party software if Microsoft has same function software.
3. I format first HDD and re-install Windows Vista.

So why do I need to care about any evil intension software ?

Years ago, prior to more mature AV/Trojan scanners and firewalls, a Wisconsin kid captured a $0 balance card number for $470 in on-line purchases. It took my attorney 10-minutes to retrieve his address and phone number with the aid of the statement.

The parents were shocked when my attorney proved what he had done. We offered two options. Pay all costs involved, including interest and my documented time and rate for running it down or pay thousands to an attorney to defend him against local in-state larceny and wire fraud charges. This would mean taking his computer and looking for all the other card numbers he has stolen and ramp up the charges, accordingly. The parents understood, helped him choose wisely, and payments had to be with money he earned. It could not come from his parents.

It cost him $3000 to steal $470. It did take one 'courtesy' call from the local prosecutor when he failed to make the first payment. It went like clockwork from there. The report is that his whole attitude changed and I can only presume that's true.

It worked because I didn't care what it cost to prove the point and the local prosecutor was kind enough to cooperate to avoid a trial. Everyone involved won, most particularly the kid and my attorney will never, ever dare look me in the eye and say that principle doesn't matter ... ever again. Besides, he got more out of it than any one else, the schmuck!!

This is still on the net so you have to be very careful about which version you are installing on your pc. I had a hacker get control of my pc several years ago when an IT guy that was trying to help me asked me to install VNC so he could have remote access to my pc to check out any problems. But I ended up installing a phony version of this program from Cambridge University that allowed the hacker to create dozens of back doors to my pc. My IT guy refused to believe this was possible until one day we were trying to use it to allow him to fix a problem and at the same time the hacker started to use my pc for his/her use. My IT guy could not believe that after so many years in this field that this was the 1st time he witnessed a hacking job in progress. He came over right away and by doing a simple Search for VNC we found almost 30 back doors all named VNC. After deleting the program and also removing those back door links the hacking problem was gone and has never come back since and that was around 2002 on that bad Windows ME system. Now happily using XP since 2003 with all security updates and a very reliable anti-virus tool no more hacking. And I will only allow a techie from that anti virus company to have a temporary remote access to find any new problem that got past security, but this is very rare problem. Only 3 times since 2003.

No anti-virus will catch everything, and certainly web site 'drive-by' malware is entirely the responsibility of the user.

I have to wonder, if you got infected by your own blog, how many visitors to your blog have also been infected. Many of those will not use Norton anyway and it is for you to ensure that your blog web site is free from malware which can cause havoc for visitors.

It is a common misconception that anti-virus utilities can check all web sites for malware. They cannot, and to blame your anti-virus for this when visitors to your web site are subject to the same risk seems a little severe to me.

Mark

Once, years ago, my sister watched while a hacker did things on her screen inside her Yahoo email account. Her *machine* wasn't compromised, just the webmail account. She hasn't had any more troubles since I showed her the difference between weak and strong passwords.
In the days of Win'95, maybe even Win 3.11, I once brought a floppy home from work which my system found a virus on. I have never since had a confirmed virus on any of my machines.
Caveat: never that I know of.
If there's a hacker skillful enough, I would never know he was on my machines. I would see no trace of him. He wouldn't slow down anything or delete anything or even interfere in any way.
It's possible I'm hacked to the eyeteeth, by spies and thieves and general no-goodniks from sevarl countries. If they are sufficiently better at their game than I am at mine, I would never suspect them.
Security, physical or electronic, is a fence. It will keep out those too lazy to climb over it or too dim to pick the gate-lock. Build a better fence and you block more skillful climbers and lockpickers. But no fence will ever block everyone and everything.
There is no such thing as secure.
Not even a box that is never connected to anything else. Such a thing can be physically hacked by an onsite human agent.
All of the foregoing is obvious and well-known. All we can do is build as tough, high, thick and wide a fence as we can afford, and not attract the atention of the real spy-guys.
And hope.
I *think* my boxes are fairly safe. Ish. So long as no one sees them as worth the effort of a personal attack.
I don't do dangerous stuff, and I keep my antibad-guy software up to date.
But I could still have been silently hacked.
So could we all.
Even the bad-guys and spies.

I had edited video for upload to youtube & had a variety of web pages open including Photobucket. While the video was uploading to youtube I fell asleep at my desk. When I awoke I could not believe what I was looking at!!!

My desktop was all messed up with things moved all around. My files were also moved around & there were security messages popping up left, right & center!! lol

Out of my fuddled brain rang a heap of alarm bells as I realized my computer had been infiltrated & hacked.

When I looked at recently used programs I could see MSM & some file transfer program were the most recent on the list. Since I never use either of them, that is obviously how the hackers got away with the loot.

The 'loot' included the WHOLE of my Outlook Express!!! It was totally GONE ! lol Since there was nothing else of great importance it was more of a nusiance than an security shambles.

But getting it all sorted afterwards was the BIG PROBLEM. I enlisted the help of 2 computer technicians, neither of which was able to help at all.

So I slept on it & on the second night I awoke with the answer..... This should never have happened if Norton had been doing it's job properly. I had the fully paid up version of Symantec everything.

I contacted them via chat & they sent me through to a technician & within an hour he had restored my computer to as new, found all the messed up stuff except OE which was indeed GONE. So they reloaded OE for me & gave me a written apology accepting full responsibility & giving me the latest upgrade which was 2009 at that time for free.

Apparently they had just that day discovered a new hacking ring that was getting into people's computers when they had both youtube & photobucket open similtaniously.

WOW that was lucky!! I felt very violated though, that someone got into my computer & chucked stuff around everywhere. Obviously kids doing it for kicks. But loosing my OE was a bit of a problem. After that I changed how & where I stored stuff. For a long time I made sure I never had those 2 pages open at the same time.

These days I have AVG fully paid & have had no problems for 2 yrs...touch wood!

A virus (which my 6 year old son put on my computer-it was a game) got on my computer when I wasn't around, and unfortunately, my network has media sharing, so it spread throughout my network, and somehow got to my server. I kinda got hacked once, but since I have a server (I inherited it from my dad's old network, he worked at home), my wife has a laptop, and I have my own computer, all on the same network, it's like getting hacked many times. Thank god all the computers were under warranty, or I would've had to fork out over $300 to fix the network.

Thanks to CNET recommendations I have been using 'AVAST Antivirus' & 'Glary Utilities' on all my equipment. Avast antivirus notified me that it detected a Trojan on my ASUS RPG. I ran a boot scan, deleted it, then ran Glary Utilities a couple of times...fixed. No issues, or damage to any of my laptops thanks to always using & updating Antivirus & spy ware programs. Eternal vigilance & CNET keep me free from hack attacks.

I clicked on a link to see a schematic diagram that was offered off the Makezine website for a Make project. The web site with the schematic had a malware program that downloaded a malware program that would not let me run any program until I downloaded a recommended(by the malware) program to get rid of an "infection" it said it found. The malware was still present after I shut the computer off and then re-booted. My system guy told me to get a down load of Malware Bytes Anti-Malware. I had to boot my computer up in the "Safe" mode so the malware wouldn't run and block me running my browser. I downloaded Malware Bytes Anti-malware, ran it in the "Safe" mode, it found 8 trojans and/
or malware and removed or quaraintined them. After that,I booted up normal and the malware was gone.
So I recommend running Malware Bytes Anti-Malware on a regular basis just in case you visited a site with a malware that got onto your computer, but the
symptoms have not become apparent to you yet. I am running Windows XP SP3 on a 1.8GHz DuoCore Intel CPU, 2 GB DRAM.

I've never actually been hacked, fortunately. I have experienced rogues and adware in the past, though, as well as being phished. This has, luckily enough, been about 8-9 years ago and I haven't had any recent issues, which I attribute to a number of things. They are, in no particular order:

1) common sense and good browsing habits.

2) hardware firewall (first line of defense when you have a lapse in judgement)

3) antivirus suite w/ software firewall--I use Norton Internet Security. Despite some of the hate it still receives, Norton is actually a top-notch AV with stellar overall protection. Scanning is done when the computer is idle and initiates full scans with zero trust. I also use aggressive heuristic settings (but not Sonar, which is aggressive enough as it is).

4) Anti-malware--as one may well imagine, Malwarebytes anti-malware is king here. I actually run the Pro version in conjunction with Norton and they run beautifully together (on several different machines, too). I schedule a quick scan daily and full scan weekly.

5) Anti-Spyware--I run SuperAntiSpyware, which is also an excellent program. I also run its real-time module (again, same as MBAM). It scans daily.


6) Sandboxing--amazingly useful type of application. I use Sandboxie, which allows me to see exactly what has been downloaded and whether or not I should allow it into the system proper.

7) Cleanup--I use CCleaner on a schedule using the /AUTO function, running twice daily. Keeps temp files and other potential risks at bay.

8) Good browser security--I opt for Firefox, since it has a relative wealth of security plugins, many of which are integral parts of my security lineup. I personally use Web of Trust (WOT), BetterPrivacy, AdBlock, and NoScript. The latter has been the handiest, but all are great plugins.

That may be excessive to some, but it works well for me and has kept 5+ systems with many users clean for years now. Even with all of this, I'll occasionally (say, every 3 months or so) use a separate online scanner, like ESET, Panda, or BitDefender as a second opinion.