Windows XP forum: How to Detect Hackers???

Spyware/Virus Removal and Prevention:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com/windowsxpsolutions.htm
(Links to online virus scans on the same page)

Hope this helps!

there is very little you can do if you are unprotected and a hacker has already got in.

The problem is, they can leave programs anywhere on your system and the only way you could find if something has been added is to do a comparison, somehow, of file numbers and/or file sizes, or disk used size, compared to a "norm". But setting that norm after the event would not work of course, and in any case I don't know how you could do it.

One way is to "track" your computer. What is it doing that you do not expect or cannot explain? Is it communicating over the interent when you are not surfing? Are there programs running in the background that you do not recognise?

You can check background processes easily enough, although it is a laborious process. Open up Task Manager, (right click the Task Bar and choose Task Manager), and in the Applications tab, are there any applications, (programs), running that you cannot see on the desktop?

Under the Processes tab, check each process with the web site below, and see what each process does.

The web site is; http://www.answersthatwork.com/Tasklist_pages/tasklist.htm

But in the end the best way to prevent hackers from invading your system, (or if they have already gotten in, prevent them from sending data out without your knowledge), is to install a firewall. There are many good firewalls available. Many are free.

The one I use is ZoneAlarm from http://www.zonelabs.com

Hope this helps.

Mark

Let's put this bluntly shall we?

No firewall will ever be able to keep everyone out. Large companies with security budgets probably higher than your annual income still manage to get hacked. If a bunch of trained professionals with some real top of the line gear can't stop it, don't even bother thinking that something like ZomeAlarm is going to be more than a 5 minute challenge (if you're lucky and get a stupid hacker).

Now, assuming someone was for some reason actually interested in your system. Chances are, you either did something stupid and provoked this attack, or it's someone you know rather well who's pissed off at you. The chances of an actual person singling you out randomly is probably lower than being struck by lightning twice in a day.

Further assuming it was someone good enough to get into your system, don't you think they would be good enough to cover their tracks well enough that you wouldn't be able to follow them?

I know a lot of computer magazines make it seem like the big bad hackers are waiting behind every corner to leap out and steal credit card numbers and that sort of thing off your system, but the truth is, there's really a very small number of actual hackers, and they're a dying breed. Script kiddies are the new wave, and they couldn't hack if their life depended on it most of the time. They use tools written by other people, which exploit known flaws in Windows (or any other OS theoretically) to create zombie PC armies. The whole process is automated, but of couse in order to convince you of their worth, the firewall will use terminology designed to envoke fear. If you keep up on your Windows patches and avoid using IE like the plague, that shouldn't be a real threat.

Just do the best you can with security... Keep an AV program up to date, don't use IE or Outlook Express, don't use programs with spyware, don't go pissing the wrong people off in chat rooms, install the latest updates for Windows/IE religiously... If you do that, then you can know that you did pretty much everything possible to stop 99% of the annoying stuff out there, and if an actual person wanted into your system, there wasn't anything you could have done anyway.