*sigh* hacked, where do I go from here?

[LeapFrog]

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If you haven't ruled out a trojan/keylogger/rootkit/etc then you should know that every key stroke on that computer may be shared with "bad people".


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Yes, I have dl'ed some stuff recently, but I also run Adaware regularly, have macaffee firewall and antivirus. Is this not enough?

After this [censored] happened I also got Spybot S&D. Should all this stuff have caught a keylogger? I'm pretty sure that's how they got my password.

On a related note, I've heard of a good program that generates and maintains hard to guess random passwords. Link?

[/ QUOTE ]

Well Spybot and Adaware are certainly good products but I'm a serious nit about security. If my computer was compromised I would NEVER 'trust' it until the HD was reformatted.

My advice: use a known safe computer to change all your info again. If you are thinking about going to the police, do not use the hard drive of your computer again as if they decide to pursue this they will need it for an investigation.

If you do not go to the police/when you get HD back from them I recommend a reformat, its really the only way to be sure.

Some tips for staying safe:

use a firewall: ZoneAlarm for example.

virus/spyware scans weekly or so: (free examples) Spybot/Adaware/TrendMicro

active protection: Windows Defender/Snoopfree Privacy Shield

Also: RootkitRevealer and Hijackthis are pretty good programs. Hijackthis requires a bit of technical understanding (to use properly -- please be careful making any changes)

For password generation/storage I like KeePass.

edited to add: use a hardware firewall too, (router)

[Tom Ames]

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On a related note, I've heard of a good program that generates and maintains hard to guess random passwords. Link?

[/ QUOTE ]

KeePass

Good luck with your troubles.

[E.Z.]

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sighs...this is why you buy 1 computer and lock it down and do nothing on it except play poker. You do not surf the web, you do not check email you do nothing but play poker. So lets do some math. A new cheap computer to run 4 tables of poker = $700. You lost $6300. $6300 - $700 = $5600 you would still have now.

Maybe now you will learn and buy a separate computer.

cheers
Boon

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Wow you're a dick. Could you be any more condescending and snobbish? Was that tone really necessary?

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and was he really above 11% to get hacked? costly insurance policy.

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lol, that's what i was thinking. mr. sighs, i got some ocean front property i would like to sell ya.

[Pokerho]

I would absolutely contact the ISP, and almost certainly contact the Canadian authorities. The ISP will tell you exactly what you need to get the IP trace, and while you may never get your money back, you could at least have the satisfaction of putting a scumbag thief in jail. Plus, you might get your money back. No downside as far as I'm concerned. I'd certainly even consider contacting your local authorities, though I might not mention the word poker until you are actually talking to a detective.

[boondoggle]

I see that you like your turds on nice clean plates..ahhhh.

cheers
Boon

[boondoggle]

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and was he really above 11% to get hacked? costly insurance policy.

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sighs...the idiots on this site....

11% is only of the current $6300 of OP's money that he lost. What % is $700 compared to his entire bankroll/poker earning capability?? ahhh..now enjoy that lightbulb going off and have a nice day.

cheers
Boon

[Percula]

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VMware is your friend.

You confine casual web surfing and such to one virtual machine, anything related to money in a different virtual machine, and finally a virtual machine for poker.


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This sounds interesting, can anyone who has used it comment on this program?

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Yes, this is a good idea and something I have been doing for years. It is not gaming friendly, i.e. wow, etc, but will work great for poker.

If you need more than one monitor you will need the not free workstation version.

[cassette]

Is there any security risk in browsing the internet if you don't click on links or download anything?

[daryn]

maybe i'm wrong, but i'm just convinced that every person who gets hacked did something dumb like download something they should have known they shouldn't.

maybe i'm wrong.

[I_C_ALL]

Adaware and spybot rarely if ever find the real culprit. If I have odd [censored] on adaware or spybot then I know I have something. Once a week I'll start in safe mode (keep pressing F8 on startup) with networking and run two online scanners. The links are below. You may also want to browse the forum I'm linking below. One sticky says "How to Protect yourself from malware" and the other says "READ & RUN ME FIRST. Malware Removal Guide" Most if not all the programs in there are free. I have never found a virus or other [censored] that I couldn't remove following their advice in those two threads. Before I started playing poker, I used to download stupid [censored] intentionally. Always cleaned well. Once I had to run in Windows recovery mode and run a program to check for text in a file. The file I couldn't access was the virus. This file was invisible to the windows operating system. That was the toughest thing I ever ran into. The site below helped me to remove it.

Also +1 on the Zone Alarm. You can leave it on the higher settings and see virtually every program communication coming in or out of your computer.

BTW, IN MY OPINION, IF YOU FOLLOW THE STEPS <u>EXACTLY</u> IN "MALWARE REMOVAL GUIDE", YOU SHOULD HAVE A CLEAN COMPUTER AFTERWARDS. I would still install and run ZoneAlarm just in case. The free version of course [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

Good luck

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=35

http://www.bitdefender.com/scan8/ie.html

http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan?