Do you think your computer has been hacked? Chances are probably not, but it does not harm to make sure.
In this article we cover
How to check – symptoms to look for if you think your computer has been hacked into.
Hacked computer fix – what can be done if your computer has been hacked.
What is the purpose of hacking a computer
How to check if your computer has been backed
Due to the very nature of the person hacking into a computer there are literally thousands of things that could be done, some of them not so malicious such as changing wall paper or language options or something much more malicious such as trashing your computers operating system or copying private files, gathering account passwords and the like.
But how can we tell? It requires little bit of detective work on your behalf, to begin with if you begin to notice changes on your computer, this could include wall paper suddenly changes, or you cannot access your computer maybe an email account or you see file modification dates have changed when you have not opened the file then this could be a warning that your computers security has been compromised.
The next step is to check system logs using event viewer, this can be accessed by – Right Clicking on My Computer – Select Manage – Computer Management – Event Viewer & Security.
Now you’ll be able to see login information to see which users have logged on to your computer and when, you can even click on each event for more information.
User accounts – extra or unknown user accounts should always be investigated, especially if they have elevated rights such as being added to the administrators group, this can be checked from computer management you’ll be able to see Local users and groups and then users – now you’ll be able to see every user account on your computer – and delete or disable any bogus or hacker accounts.
Another really good way to check is from the admin console on your router – pretty much all routers have logs of various events which give all kinds of information, but in particular you’ll be able to see if persistent attempts are made to access the router.
What can I do if i’ve been hacked?
There are two types of damage limitation we need to employ here online and offline.
Online involves fixing the security loophole and then making your computer as secure as possible.
In addition to these account passwords, including windows login, email accounts, all need to have passwords changed, and not just to any word that can easily be cracked, an easy way to create a secure password that you can remember would be to take a simply word and substitute some of the characters for example if we used the word football this would be an easy word to crack so if we change it to Footb4ll its still easy to remember, but is not actually a real word, all passwords should consist of at least one upper case, one lower case and one numerical character, and a minimum of 8 characters in total.
Offline security means banking passwords – credit card accounts – any external account you manage online, if your unsure about this contact your bank or other confidential organisations as soon as possible, explain to them what has happened, they will have procedures in place to help you which if implemented in time will save you lots of money and grief if any of these accounts have been compromised.
The purpose of hacking can be a number or reasons it could simply be the challenge of being able to break into someone else’s property, being able to inflict as much damage as possible to someone else’s property with little or no chance of being caught, hacking into some ones computer purely for financial gain, or breaking into some ones computer to obtain specific information, this is usually done by someone who knows the owner of the computer.
Make sure your computer is secure and you’ll never be wondering if your computer has been hacked into
Read our guides covering many aspects of computer security with help and tips on how to implement better computer security
Today I went to start to shut down my computer and I let go of the mouse to see if it moves because when I was watching something on my computer my mouse was moving and so then when I let go I was still on Start and my mouse then went to magnifier and clicked on it I didn’t do anything….
Is a a hacker??? if it is then I already put netstat -a in my command prompt and it did say on forgien location in words like i think it said…
I am not sure but it said a lot of User-PC090 for example and one was like this 74.678.398.789.http for another example also *:* finally something with words like for example jkdlfkls.net or something
That sounds like someone is connected to your computer
, check your user accounts and delete any odd ones also change passwords on the ones you use.
hi today i was randomly on facebook suddenly warning came that malicious has been detected then some thing came again from window 7 security program like your filies leaked to distant host then nothng was opening their were like 101 threads they were weird like childpornproxyserver weird w32/bucter etc so what was it is my laptop being hacked are my private things leaked plz tell me thank you
Dont think your computer is hacked, sounds like a virus is what you have, try running MS security essentials, also would not harm to disable your FB addins as well.
is my computer hacked
My son set his computer up to act as a server for some online game. It’s shut down now but someone has been trying to use my credit card. The bank prevented it and cancelled the card. Should I be concerned that whoever this was can still access my information?
As long as the credit card has been changed the old details will be worthless to anyone trying to use them.
The issue is how could anyone have intercepted the credit card transaction in the first place, it either means someone has managed to hack onto the server and placed some type of keylogger which could still be active, or a website used to make a card payment is fraudulant.
i was chatting with a person on omegle.. he sent me a link which i pasted on my browser and it opened up to be a picture. the next message he sends me is that he is a hacker belonging to ‘annonymous’ and has hacked my computer through the link that he sent.. is it possible for him to do it? am i hacked?.. my laptop seems normal… what can i do to find out?
If the link opened any malware and this has run on your computer then yes this is possible, download and run something like malwarebytes or microsoft security essentials to check and remove any malware, also check all the user accounts on your computer, any odd ones disable them, and change passwords on any you do use.
For anyone to hack your computer they need a way in this can only be accomplished by using an account, many malware applications will create an account or run as the administrator account, hope this helps.
when im on one chatting site..i press monkey and it shows me like nononoxD so am i hacked or what?
Could be your Internet browser is hijacked, checkout our article on this
Internet explorer hijacked
Hey, Myself And My Girl Friends Facebook Keep On Being Hacked And Abusive And Personal Messages Keep On Being Left On Our Walls. I Also Run A Large Company With Contact Details Of Many Bands And Their Members On My Laptop But I Am Also Worried That I Keep Getting Abusive Calls Off An Unknown Number And Was Wondering Whether, because My Phone Is Connected To The Internet For Facebook And Emails Weather They Could Gather Personal Information? We’ve Both Recently Changed Numbers And Both Have New COmputers But It Still Keeps On Happening. If This Is Possible It Could Be Someone Hacking Is There A Hotline For These Sort’s Of Things? Cheers
Sounds like someone has your account details change all passwords, pc, facebook etc, and make sure all facebook addins are disabled, but at the end of the day this sounds as though it could be detrimental to your business, its probably worth your hiring your local IT specialist to find out how this is happening and resolve it once and for all.
Mike
Today, I was on the computer looking up some videos online. And this one website had a video I wanted to watch, so I clicked On it… But then something poped up, it said something like “current location tracking”. I didn’t know what that meant, but not taking chances I restarted my computer. It was doing fine before. But just like an hour ago I dropped my laptop. Now just about 20 minutes ago, I tried turning my laptop on, and right away, my screen shows all these numbers and letters. I didn’t get a chance to read it, cause just a few seconds after all these things pop up, it starts making weird, loud, beeping noises. I don’t know what to do. I took out my battery and am letting it sit right now. Should I do anything further? I’m not sure if it is a hack, or something else. Any advice?
My computer has a completely different desktop all the sudden and it is red with a clock on the right side and I want the hacker to know U Lose loser get a life I bought a new laptop
Hi, I would like to know how I can know if my Mac is hacked- my credit card details (2!) were hacked and some money was taken from my account and I don’t know if the website is hacked- I used both cards in only one site for shopping- not at the same time or maybe my Mac could be hacked?
thanks for your reply,
Zsuzsi
When i am out of town using my laptop on the internet my wife seems to know exactly what i have browsed even before i get back home. Is it possible for her to have access to my computer to see the links that i have visited? How does she know specific information within a few hours of particular sites and such?
i used my laptop saturday morning and using in the evening its telling me someone has used my pc to deliver junk mail i would like help fing who that person is i cant get my contacts i cant read my messages can some help i need to get my information plz.
I received a spam email and got to the point were it.aggravated me..so I emailed it saying to knock it off(I, know dumb).and it actually wrote back but what I received kinda creeped me out..it knew my hometown and my previous job( not actual place but same field).should I b worried our can they see that kind of information
It sounds as though the spammer took some time to do a little home work on you.
Finding your town is easy as they will have been able to see your IP address which will give a rough geographical location, apart from that they probably searched under your email address and found you it in somewhere like facebook or a company website.
Don’t worry too much about this, i think the biggest problem you have is telling the spammer that someone exists at your email address so you’ll probably find yet more spam, try downloading something like spam bully.
hope this helps
Mike
I was away from my apartment for four days over Thanksgiving, when I returned and switched my computer on there was strange happenings, i.e. black screen with white data scrolling up and down. I had never experienced this before nor since that one time. I thought it was most odd at the time as my roomate’s boyfriend was a highly smart, savy computer geek, does it for his job. Later she mentioned something that she could only have known by accessing my computer. It freaked me out and I would be grateful for any opinions…was this a sign of someone copying my memory with all my information on it, (pics, emails, letters etc) despite I have passwords. I have also since found out he did it for her when her predecessors at work left and she wanted to read all their deleted emails. He recovered them all and she shared some very private and personal information about them which shocked me. She told me the sub contracted IT guy did it but I don’t believe her as it would surely be illegal and without the owner’s knowledge he would possibly risk losing his job. I know her boyfriend accompanied her to the office some weekends and suspect she probably got him to do it then! Any ideas or opinions on this matter would be greatly appreciated! Thank you…
First things first, change any passwords and login information, in particular sensitive stuff such as banking info.
Do not change it from your current computer in case there is any type of malware keylogger running.
Yes its totally illegal for someone to do this, but proving it is something else.
As your up against someone more technical than yourself you need to find someone who can come and check your pc for any type of malware and hacking, who can then secure it properly for you.
If the person you mention is as you suggest the chances are there will be some type of backdoor left on the computer so they can easily connect to it again.
best wishes M
Hi there, this past week I blocked a fellow on facebook and the following day I watched his profile reappear as though we were friends. This happened three times and following that I have been having difficulty accessing my fb account because it continually says that my email is not associated with my account, as well the passwords I use. Do you think my account was compromised? If so, what steps do I take to regain my security? Thank you.
It does sound as though your account has been hacked, first thing is to contact FB via http://www.facebook.com/hacked and advise them of what has happend, once you have done this make sure you use a real secure password one that has at least one upper case, one lower, one number and one non standard such as C0mput3r??
someone hacked my accounts and said that he hacked my pc , and whenever i try to login to my account or try to connect to internet…my pc shutts off…..is my pc hacked?
everyday i get scary pics on my comp and text messages…the text messages say that i must be good to 2 of my friends or the hacker or whatever it is will check my comp again,he always leaves some pictures too can you please tell me how to stop him this thing please.and how to understand what it is
try disconnecting from the web and then powering on when you would normally expect to get the message, if you do it means there is some type of malware running on your pc as opposed to someone directly hacking your pc.
You have to bare in mind if someone is hacking onto your computer they will need to use a useraccount to do this, check all user accounts and disable any unknown and change password on any others.
M
hi, i was chatting wth a guy on yahoo, whn sudnly my yahoo stopd to respond , then whn i tried to open my other chat clients , they wrnt responding too, once i went to the rooms, bt i was unable to write antng thr n got hanged, it hapng agn n agn, is my system hacked?
its more than likely your yahoo has just crashed or their service has an issue, close down your pc to kill all sessions and logins and try again, also check on yahoo’s service page for status of their service.
hi today somwthing popped up on my laptop that said copying 125 items, but i didnt copy anything, do you think my computer has been hacked?
Thats pretty worrying, disconnet it from the internet and then checkout our page in regard to securring your computer – http://www.computer-adviser.com/windows-security.html
I was wondering if, just by talking with someone over omegle (not with webcam), they can hack your computer. i do not believe i have been hacked at all, but i just wanted to make sure its not a possibility, even if you have antivirus.
Hi
We get a few posts from people asking roughly the same thing, just the usual precautions make sure your computer is secure in terms of Windows updates, a good strong password on your Windows login, don’t accept any files, and lastly dont provide too much information especially if any of the answers are being used by you as passwords, apart from that there really is nothing to worry about.
S
my computer somehow while shutdown sent out emails to all of my contacts and each email was talored to that person..like my friend is a lawyer it said hi lawyer billy hope you are well open this link and find out??? All email contacts were sent something and it was very LATE in the night!
Firstly don’t open your email as its more than likely you have a virus or some other malware installed which is sending to all your address book contacts trying to infect their computers, you can never be too safe so download and run 2 or even 3 malware scanners to remove it for you.
Try these (all of which are free or have free versions) Eset security scanner, malwarebytes and microsoft security essentials, which AV software are you currently using? Whatever it is its failed to protect your computer.
regards
S
So my friends email was hacked, but she immediately changed passwords. It continued to get hacked and now she cannot use her computer or any programs available on it without it being taken over. (Microsoft Word, interenet….) Any suggestions on what to do? It has been taken to Best Buy for security updates and anti virus and malware programs.
Severe case of hacking, someone must be connecting to her pc or using a keylogger to obtain information, you really need to make sure they are no back door windows accounts, setup and there is no key logging software installed i would strongly recommend you bring in a pc professional to secure the pc properly to get this resolved once and for all.
http://www.computer-adviser.com/windows-security.html
S
This was a very good article. I checked the logs you mention and did not see any thing suspious yet my mouse occassionally sweeps across the screen without me moving it, disappears or doesn’t activate a file, folder or whatever I left click & it is a totally fresh OS install with AVG immediately installed. Any ideas on what I can do to find out the cause to such things happening if I’m not hacked, no spyware, or malware. No downloads except for programs such as flash player which was directly installed as was the acrobat reader.
Thank you for your praise on the article.
To me it does not sound as though your computer has been hacked, although it never harms to check this as a precaution.
If your using a laser mouse it might be worth checking if this is the problem, a hair or fluff on the laser, or even the surface its on can cause these types of problems.
regards
S
I have just been on Facebook chat and all the words were changing and capitals coming at the beginning of words that I haven’t put. Have I been hacked?
I am sure through my email I got hacked. I have little information on computer. Please help me out. the step you mentioned to check system logs using event viewer. I did the above steps for even view it does not show user name or computer as it shows in your security window. and also when right clink on event properties it is not same. Could plz help me get this right. 2nd question: the above information says Another way to check is from the admin console on your router how can I do it and also do not know how the check to see if there is another user account. Thank you so much for your useful information. Sahel
hi when whenever i seach somthing on google and try.to click it the page is redirected to some where it show ip add and says page attack and my.pc bootup seed become slow is my pc hacked
i was chatting with my girl friend on gmail and she is able to hear the audio of youtube videos from my computer, i haven’t plugged in the mike yet,,,,,is my computer hacked? and i have 5 computer accounts like, administrator,help assistant ,guest,support_38 and another one with my name….i don’t know which one is the odd one,,,,,,pls help
got so many trojans dectected and my youtube and email have been used do I need to get a new system?
No a virus, trojan, malware whatever you want to call it is a piece of software your worst can scenario if you cannot remove it is to simply reformat your computer and reinstall Windows.