Independent Mortgage Broker of 21 years, working out of my home for the past 2 years, originate loans online, pull credit reports and list & sell real estate. Hired IT Tech to setup small remote server for new bus venture and totally crashed system!!!
Out of business for the past year, due to rootkits, trojans, virus', keyloggers, winword macros, etc., I am very anxious to get back to work.
I have 4 computers with Windows Professional XP Media Edition OS, a VPN router with hardwire and 2 WPA2 Encrypted Wireless Networks, a static IP Address, etC
WOULD LIKE TO TRACK AND PROSECUTE BUT MUST GET BACK TO WORK 1ST! PLEASE HELP!!
2006-12-11 06:54:48 · 6 answers · asked by rsvpd2020 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Computer Networking
I agree with the first poster, this is a bit more then any of us can walk you though. I don't agree however with the Best Buy Geek Squad part. I would recommend checking with the BBB and finding a privet small computer company in your area. That way you can get the same techs to help you though out the process. They may charge a bit more, but if you do your research on them they will be well worth it in the long run.
I would not trust the Geek squad with my home business computers.
The guy bellow has a great start for how to get your computers back up and running, however, It seems that you would get in over your head to quickly. We will not be there reading though the reports/results as you go though the cleaning process. Get a professional to come in and do it, because it concerns your business. Its not worth the risk of you missing something.
The last poster, I would also agree with you do not prosecute a "hacker" in most cases, but in the case where you think the tech was negligent, or the cause of, you definitely want to seek legal options, consult your lawyer on how to do this. Also when you are dealing with peoples finances you always want to explore legal options to prevent yourself from being found at fault.
2006-12-11 07:06:30 · answer #1 · answered by Peter K 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First thing I would do is disconnect all your machines from the Internet and each other. That way you won't have anything propagating back and forth once you've cleaned a machine. Download Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE Personal, Spybot Search and Destroy, and SpywareBlaster. All 3 are free downloads that will help remove infections and protect against future problems. Update and run them on each machine. It would be useful to install an anti-virus with up-to-date virus definitions (AVG-Free or Avast! are both free anti-viruses). Once you've run the programs on all the computers and you are confident they are free of problems, then I would connect them back to your network but leave your Internet disconnected. If you have any firewalls attached, make sure to turn it on. I would turn everything on (router firewall policies, Windows firewall, etc) and if you have problems routinely shut things off one at a time until it works.
Changing the passwords and making sure they are hard to crack would be a good idea too. You can test the strength of your password choices here: http://www.securitystats.com/tools/passw...
Once you feel safe, reconnect your Internet connection and see what happens.
2006-12-11 07:10:51 · answer #2 · answered by thisguy 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
dont go with the geek squad. if you are tech savvy, backup your data, and wipe all your workstations and server. reinstall all the OS, do not use XP home media edition, use prof, also build a domain for better security. but then again if you have only 4 workstations, then peer to peer workgroup should be sufficient.
Also you should do a factory reset on your firewall, and consider changing your static IP just in case he has your IP which he probably does.
2006-12-11 08:56:58 · answer #3 · answered by yesssssssss 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Krizz Kaliko Jedi Mind Tricks Atmosphere 3 great artists, Jedi Mind is a lot like Tech N9NE as far as lyrics go. I love them
2016-05-23 06:03:07 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Truthfully, you need too much done for anyone to give you a text explaination. You need to call someone to come in and setup your network and systems. Try the Geek Squad at Best Buy.
2006-12-11 07:00:55 · answer #5 · answered by Shawn H 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You don't track and prosecute. You just create a network with firewalls to prevent an attack from ever happeneing.
Hackers are a fact a life, so learn to deal with attacks, and get on with doing business.
2006-12-11 12:28:36 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋