[MPKish]

This is my first post, please forgive any goofs or tech jargon slip-ups. I currently have more than one anti-virus, anti-cookie and spyware programs running on my PC. First of all, please believe that I've been hacked in the past. A PC wizard friend of mine came to check my home PC out after I pleaded and convinced him that something was going on in the background while computing offline or online. When he attempted to safe start and delete certain programs and restart, the "bug" outmaneuvered him and crashed without the ability to restart. End result was we found "the bug" and the response was to disable my whole system. My friend took the whole tower home and started investigating. Eventually what he found, to the delight of his computer buddies was, I was being hacked thru 6 systems, I was number 7 and command was to show european porn, etc. Video, sound and players were enabled by normal start up commands. I have a creepy feeling that it's happening again! Would anyone be so kind as to advise me how to run checks to triage my programs and services running? Also, how to double check if my security programs are actually protecting and receiving updates/downloads from the internet? I have a Dell Intel Pentium 4 CPU 1.70Ghz 4400 running Windows XP Home. Please advise if you need more PC info. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated...

 

[Cookiegal]

Hi and welcome to TSG,

I will tackle this one since it's fallen back quite a bit. There are some things I can help you with.

First off, you say that you are running more than one anti-virus program. This is not a good idea, you should choose one and disable the other.

Here are some links on how to tighten and test security posted by the experts here:

http://forums.techguy.org/t110854.html

http://forums.techguy.org/t208517.html

I don't believe you mentioned that you have Spybot Search and Destroy so it would be a good idea to download and run it regularly. You can also add SpywareBlaster and SpywareGuard for good measure.

Download and run: SPYBOT SEARCH & DESTROY, here:

http://download.com.com/3000-2144-1...tml?tag=lst-0-1

Open Spybot Search & Destroy (Click Start, Programs, Spybot S&D (Advanced Mode). Click online, Search for updates, Download all available updates. Close all Browser windows, Click ''Check for Problems'', Put a check in every entry Spybot Search & Destroy flags with a red exclamation mark and click ''Fix Selected Problems'' , Then restart your computer.

Download both of these for added protection: SPYWAREBLASTER & SPYWAREGUARD, here:

http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.html

Finally, you could download Hijack This, then do a scan and post the log for the experts here to take a look at to see what's going on.

Please do this. Click here: http://www.sherrylynn.us/HijackThis.exe to download Hijack This. Save it to it’s own folder (not temporary files or the desktop).

Close all open windows and open HIJACK THIS. Click “Scan”. When the scan is finished (it only takes a second), the scan button will change to “Save Log”. Click on “Save Log” and save it to NotePad. Copy the entire log and paste it here.

DO NOT FIX ANYTHING YET, most items that appear in the log are harmless or even needed. Wait for someone to analyze the scan and advise.

I don't know if this answers all your questions but it's definitely a good start.

Cookie