Have I been hacked?
 

Hey all,

I just want to check this out, as I'm pretty certain about it.

Earlier on, I was merrily writing a fascinating essay for university, and, suddenly, about a million windows opened up! I tired to close some of them, but quickly decided my pc was under attack.

I had to restart it the slow way (i.e. using windows to properly restart) rather than the quick way (hitting the reset button) because I needed to save my work! Sure enough, it asked me if I wanted to save before it re-started.

Since that time, I have changed all of my passwords on this computer, as well as my internet passwords (from one of my other pcs). I have also updated lots of new patches for windows.

Is there anything else I should do? The mass of open windows were open for about thirty seconds, so how much damage could they have done? Its realy annoying, as I thought I had two firewalls (a router AND a software firewall).. so is there anything else I can do to stop this from happening in the future?

P

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

What was in the windows? - Do you use a PC Switch box, I have a similar type of thing happen if I hold shift/ctrl and then click with my mouse, in that every mouse movement seems to copy a window!

Do your logs for the firewalls etc. show any attacks?

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Run the usual Anti Virus & Spyware checks, could of been a browser hijack program. Unlikely to have done much damage to your pc I think.

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Heya :)

Well there were literally hundreds of windows that suddenly sprung up... I had no idea where they all came from or what they were doing! There was an MSN-messenger-style one open with an OK button but no text in, countless others that I didn't get to look into... and also a whole stack (like 10 or 20) of windows with a weird logo on the left-hand side- looked like a typical 'spy' character from a film with a hat and trenchcoat on! At first I thought it may have been Adobe screwing up (I was converting an excel document to a .pdf and had tried to cancel).. but kinda assumed quickly that something fishy was going on!

P

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

I have done a virus scan so far.. gonna re-install adaware in a sec - or is there another ad-killer prog you can suggest?

I've never heard of a broweser hijack program before! I always assumed the only way people could get in were with viruses or whatever, but, lol you learn something every day!

I've looked thru my firewall log, but am not really sure what I am looking at, lol!

P

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Run something like adware6 to hunt for spyware on your pc.

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Was your browser open?If so what site was it open to?

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Spybot SD, that & Adaware should get just about everything.

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

If you use ad-aware, make sure you activate in depth scanning, dont use the smart scan option as ad-aware tends to miss things sometimes.

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Do you have any desktop news tickers or active desktop type feature particularly WeatherBug?

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Hey all!

It's happened again!

This is getting frustrating now! :monkey:

This time I was using powerpoint and not doing anything else. Again, a tonne of windows were opened - I IMMEDIATELY unplugged my internet connection. Currently running a virus scan on the pc. It's d/ced from the internet right now; I can't figure out how people keep getting into it. It's windows xp and I have put into effect all the latest updates and so on, so am REALLY starting to get confused by all this!

I'll post some piccies from the last time it happened in a few moments...

P

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

howdy,

i have attached the list of processes that were running below. there were quite a few more at the start, but i closed them!

any thoughts?

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Were you browsing the same site as last time?
I have had this in the past, and it was caused by pop-ups that had been hacked themselves to lead to other pop-ups.
Use a pop-up stopper (google toolbar has a good one in it) to stop them happening in the first place.

alt/f4 is your friend when this happens.

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Have you tried Hijackthis http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

It can help identify problems with your browser etc.

Re: Have I been hacked?
 

Hmmm....what are all those DDE windows for?

What's with the MCI Command handling window and font capture things?

The AdobeTrayIcon should not show up - it certainly doesn't on mine and I have the full Acrobat, version 5.

Wierd :confused: