What do you do if a hacker has hacked into ur computer?

Question

What do I do!?They are giving strangers my personal information like telephone numbers home address ect.?

Answer 1

The first thing to do is Udate your Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware programs. Do not run scans with them yet.

Next, make a password that will be hacker resistant. A password should be at least 8 character long. Most site have a password range of 6-20 characters. Window XP will allow passwords up to 256 characters long, although, very few sites will allow passwords this long. It would be tough memorizing one that long. I use a password 15 characters long and had no trouble memorizing it after 3 or 4 uses.

The password should be made of random letters, numbers and symbols (example: t4*7_Hl+. This would become your basic password. When you want to use it for a specific site or service, you can add some additional letters to the end of it. For instance; if you have Yahoo Email you could add YM (t4*7_Hl+YM). For Yahoo Messenger: YIM. For Windows Messenger: WIM For a PayPal Account you could add PP etc.

I strongly recommend your base password be in the 14 - 20 character range and completely random. This make it extremely difficult for password "cracking" programs like "Brute Force". I makes it impossible for people to guess and makes it very difficult for most people to memorize if they see it written down.

I use a password generating program that makes a completely random basic password. I store this basic Password in a program called KeePass Password Safe. The add letters for specific accounts like Yahoo Mail (YM) I have written down for easy access if I can't remember a rarely used one. If people see these it does them no good without the basic password.

Password generating program: Free to use and Free of spyware/adware.

http://www.tropicdesigns.net/

KeePass Password Safe: Not mandatory, but a heck of a lot safer than writing down your password.

http://keepass.info/

I change my basic password every 3 months. No password is safe to use for long periods of time. I see some posts where people are hacked and can't understand how it happened. They have used the same password for 5 or 10 yrs and never had a problem before. Well, that's the problem. Even a person can eventually guess it if they have 5 or 10 yrs to do it.

Physically disconnect your computer from the Internet. Change your Windows Password. If you are the Administrator, make yourself the Limited Users also. When you use the computer, use it in the Limited User account. Only use the Administrator account when needed to make setting changes and downloading programs etc. If you use the Administrator Account all the time, a hacker will have access to all of your computer and information on it.

Now, reboot your computer. As soon as you turn on the power start tapping the F8 key repeatedly ( 1 tap per second). When the DOS screen comes up, use the keyboard up/down arrows and select the SAFE MODE option and hit the ENTER key. In Safe Mode the scree looks real weird and this is normal. Scan with your AV and then your AS programs. Delete all they find. This is to detect and remove any Malware programs that could be sending your info to another computer.

To get out of Safe Mode simply reboot your computer. I will start up in Normal mode.

Before reconnecting to the Internet:

If you have Windows XP SP2 make sure the Firewall is turned on. Many hackers will turn off your firewall once they have access to your computer. Start>Control Panel>Security Center>Firewall>Dot the "ON" button.

Reconnect to the Internet:

Now, change all the passwords of other services you use. Do not leave one old password.

Now I recommend you go to these sites and do the free online scans and removal. Do the scans at both sites. One is primarily for Viruses and the other for all froms of Spyware/Trojan/adware etc.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

http://www.trendmicro.com/spyware-scan/free_spyware_scan.asp

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Answer 2

First off, take the computer off the internet. Change any passwords you have on your accounts and alert your family, friends, and any business contacts in your online address book that someone may have hacked into your PC and might be impersonating you. They should not respond to you without phoning you back at a designated phone number, preferably your home phone, not a cell phone.

Figure out what confidential infromation was on the PC and take steps to safeguard that info. Did you type in your credit cards there at any time? Did you access your bank statements? Did you have a family budget? Did you do your income tax using some sort of tax software? Keep track of what was on it (even anything that you had told it to "remember my username and password" the next time you go to the site) and try to get the passwords changed.

Notify your credit card companies and the bank of a possible security breach. They may have some suggestions to protect you from illegal activities on your accounts. (You can do things like reduce the daily ATM withdrawal limit or the largest credit card transaction you are allowed to make per day)

Next, re-install the Windows operating system and any software you were using. If they got your addresses and emails, it may be due to trojan horse viruses or spyware that is on the PC, and they may gain access again after you change your password because they actually have a back door into the PC.

Finally, once you are back online, make sure you are using a reliable firewall, virus scanner, and spyware detector...Even if you have to pay $50-100 for this, treat it like insurance because it is much less of a hassle than dealing with identity theft.

Answer 3

You probably have a trojan horse installed on your computer. This will allow the intruder to secretly connect to your computer via the Internet, record your keystrokes from your keyboard, take screen shots of your screen, and many other malacious things, without your permission, intervention, or knowledge that any of this is going on.

You can download and install free software to (try to) remove this threat, such as AVG antivirus and the ZoneAlarm firewall.

Click here to download AVG antivirus: http://www.download.com/AVG-Anti-Virus-Free-Edition/3000-2239_4-10596553.html?tag=lst-0-1

Click here to download ZoneAlarm: http://www.download.com/ZoneAlarm/3000-10435_4-10550364.html?tag=lst-0-6

If you do not like the idea of using free software and would rather pay for a name brand, go to a store like Circuit City or Staples and purchase the Kaspersky Internet Security Suite (MUCH better than Norton or McAfee, trust me).This will install an anti-virus and a firewall combo. The firewall will prompt you (ask you) to grant or deny certain applications from connecting to the Internet (such as the hidden trojan on your computer), and the anti-virus will find and remove the trojan horse that is more than likely installed on your PC.

Here's a link to the software I'm referring to:

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Kaspersky-Internet-Security-6-0-PC/sem/rpsm/oid/157975/catOid/-13004/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do

Good luck.

Answer 4

Download and install a firewall zonealrm.
If someone hacks into your system you will find out. Moreover, a person needs your IP address to hack into the system. Download zonelarm from here:

http://www.zonelabs.com/store/content/company/products/znalm/freeDownload.jsp

Answer 5

steve n has the general idea.... some good points, except the pay for security suites...get freeware (avg, avast, etc).
more importantly, get a grasp of the security issues for net users; a good place to start is the podcast 'security now' with leo laporte and STEVE GIBSON of GRC.COM; know what you are up against first, take steps required, then go on the surfing binges, and e-mail adventures. good luck

Answer 6

Oh come now, we all know that Christians are too scientifically illiterate to do any such thing, don't we now? I mean, you tell us often enough. Is lying through your teeth the latest example of "rational" atheism?

Answer 7

open firewall, have a software to protect my computer, and examine my e-mail. Ensure that all relevant patches are released immediately after deployment.

Answer 8

Notify the police. They could probably help.

Answer 9

unplug your computer from the internet immaidtley.