Bring back the birch

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Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Last night whilst I was deep in the land of nod, some (Can't say the word, but it begins with B and ends in D and is 8 letters long) hacked into my computor, and cleared all relevant info, and everyone in my address book, why do these pratts do it, and what do they get out of it. Don't they realise the importance of details such as these to an indevidual.All the grief it's caused me, despite having a costly anti virus etc.:mad:
Jim.

Lincoln .7

Original post

Member for

15 years 2 months

Posts: 2,828

That might explain why I got an e-mail from you with some weird link (I didn't click the link as i've seen those e-mails before from others)
I think some people think it is funny to cause people such annoying misery.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 10,168

and why did you leave the pc running?

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Peter. I didn't leave it running. It was switched off all night, I was wondering if it may have "Slipped in under the radar" so as to speak, then was activated when I switched it on this morning.BTW I am going to put some details of that book on Historic, I asked Moggy a thing or two re some of the entries, and he was as mystified as I, perchance we may get some answers.

Apologies for last night, but R.H.ds is the only name I knew them by, thats what my two brothers called them when they were stationed over there, but I understand what you mean.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

That might explain why I got an e-mail from you with some weird link (I didn't click the link as i've seen those e-mails before from others)
I think some people think it is funny to cause people such annoying misery.

Sorry about that, it's a shame you cant back track, and find the idiot who did it.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Member for

16 years 5 months

Posts: 1,873

jim, do you have anything pop up telling you to install things to protect your PC, like anti spyware and stuff?

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 667

Jim, two words...

Antivirus and Firewall.

My anti-virus program is AVG, my firewall is ZoneAlarm.
Both are free, and have served me well for years without problems.
(Usual disclaimer applies. Other AV/ Firewall programs are available.)

Following on from what Scott Marlee said - Do NOT click on any pop-up links claiming to offer a free computer scan/ optimise your PC's performance, etc. etc.
Chances are, these pop-ups will have some malicious code in there somewhere. Last month, I spent the best part of two days cleaning-up the aftermath of such malicious code from a friend's PC. Not fun for either of us; although he had backed-up most of his files.

When you download your new AV and firewall, make sure you ENABLE automatic updates. That way, you will know that anything else that appears will be bogus.

Get Safe Online has some good advice. Look in the Knowledgebase.

Here are 10 Ways To Protect Your Computer.

Hope the above helps.

Don

Member for

11 years 11 months

Posts: 113

If the PC was off they can't 'hack in' to it.

Also, be careful with anti-virus and anti-spyware. Quite often those things are more trouble than they are worth and protect against next to nothing.

Also, whilst zone alarm may be sort of OK it's still a software firewall. Much better to get a router than has SPI and NAT capabilities from the off. Any software can be compromised so a software firewall is, of course, going to be a target for someone wanting to compromise the PC.

Member for

19 years 1 month

Posts: 6,043

Also never click on links on emails etc !

I had an interesting conversation a year or so ago...phone rings ''hello this is (young lady) from (internet provider) - we are ringing to see if you are getting the best value service'' (or something along those lines) and then she said ...
''If you can just answer your security questions etc'' :rolleyes:
We then had a long conversation about me not giving personal info to anybody who calls me !The security questions are there for if when I call them...she really didnt get what I was on about...she might have been genuine but how would you know ?
I never give personal info out to anybody :)

Member for

13 years

Posts: 2,841

Heads up From a friend of mine yesterday

Received following mail today:

"Why did you put this photo online"

"Hello there ,
I have a question- have you seen this picture of yours in attachment?? Three facebook friends sent it to me today... why did you put it online?
wouldn't it harm your job? what if parents see it? you must be way cooler than I thought about you man Smile))) "

In the attached ZIP-file is a trojan hidden.

Don't open!

Member for

18 years 1 month

Posts: 2,123

Threat

Jim, I also received an email message, purportedly from you, which gave me a threat warning! Looks like you've been phished. Check your antivirus, firewalls etc!

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 9,739

All the grief it's caused me, despite having a costly anti virus...

What anti-virus have you got?

I got an e-mail from you too and, like a fool, I opened the link! Thankfully Norton Anti-Virus blocked the link and, fingers crossed, my computer seems to be OK.

Member for

15 years 8 months

Posts: 1,320

@bazv

You should have told her she needs a licence to go phishing inland

@paul178
Most are pretty easy to spot:
- Anything that is trying to grab your attention
- Anything with a first name only
- Email address you dont recognise
- ZIP files or other suspicious attachment
- Pictures named as being of a person (e.g heres a pic of my ****.jpg)

Also, consider turning off HTML etc in email!

Member for

11 years 11 months

Posts: 113

We then had a long conversation about me not giving personal info to anybody who calls me !The security questions are there for if when I call them

I've had the exact same conversation with a large credit card company. I get a phone call out of the blue 'I'm calling from xyz credit cards can you verify your identity?'

Me: 'Yes, I can. Can you?'

Her: 'I can assure you that I'm with XYZ'

Me: 'Great, and I can assure you that I'm the named person you want to talk to'

Her: 'Thats not good enough'

Me: 'And it's not good enough for me either, now go away and read up on security and non-repudiation now Foxtrot Oscar'.

Her: 'You are very rude! *click*'

I never provide personal details to someone on the end of the phone unless they can validate myself and all of my security questions have different answers.

I don't run any firewall and anti-spyware software on my home PC. That stuff just clogs the machine up and is utterly pointless. I do browse the web in a sandbox environment (http://www.sandboxie.com/) and I'm very careful with email attachments and odd links in email.

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

If the PC was off they can't 'hack in' to it.

Also, be careful with anti-virus and anti-spyware. Quite often those things are more trouble than they are worth and protect against next to nothing.

Also, whilst zone alarm may be sort of OK it's still a software firewall. Much better to get a router than has SPI and NAT capabilities from the off. Any software can be compromised so a software firewall is, of course, going to be a target for someone wanting to compromise the PC.

Hi Garyw. When it must have happened was, I tend to leave it on right up until I go to bed,It's more than likely I may well know the hackers email address (But thats gone along with the others) I like to watch and listen to the Violinist Andre Rieu, and had joind his blog, where I posted on there that I wanted one of his DVds that was no longer available, and this person asked me for my email address etc, and I rather foolishly gave it two or 3 days later TSHTF, but I have a paid for version of AVG and a firewall, but as we all know, there is that young fellar who they want to extradite to the States for hacking into the CIA etc, now the likes of he can do that, what chance do we have?.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Jim, two words...

Antivirus and Firewall.

My anti-virus program is AVG,

Get Safe Online has some good advice. Look in the Knowledgebase.

Here are 10 Ways To Protect Your Computer.

Hope the above helps.

Don

Hi Don, thanks for the advice,I have been ultra careful in the 10yrs I have been using a Comp, and this is the first time I have been had:mad:
The thing is, deep inside, I feel rather ashamed that quite a few friends I have on the forum may have caught what I did.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Member for

18 years 1 month

Posts: 2,123

I don't seem to have "caught" anything, Jim, but it is always stressful to think something might be in there.
We must take home that we can never be too careful.
Cheers

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

Laurance and Warren, my apologies if I have caused you any trouble with that virus, even though there many anti virus and fiirewalls out there, just a seemingly innocent press of the finger can cause a multitude of sins.

I estimate that about 200 plus folks on my list may have been sent it.Time to do a bit of pruning.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Member for

13 years 9 months

Posts: 8,306

O.K. you young uns give me a bit of advice please, what is the best Firewall I can download, I have a paid version of AVG but a full sweep of my comp AFTER event showed all was well and good, and nothing was found.
Thanks.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Member for

12 years 9 months

Posts: 759

My experience ....AVG : Pretty lame & useless. Norton Far too bossy , wants to take over your Pute & a real pain in the Bum . Microsoft Security Essentials ( Free download ) Bloody brilliant , its easy , it works & its free !!!

Member for

17 years 6 months

Posts: 985

I use the default Windows firewall and Avast anti-virus and have never had any problems.