Someone took over my computer

[Zoe]

Windows 10 did just let me do extended updates on security updates til next year. I did run windows update and it said you are out of date. I went through some links and it led me to a site to get extended security updates and it did it. I ran windows update again and it said you are up to date.

Go figure. I need to put this dinosaur to sleep.

 

[Zoe]

I am on my computer and all of a sudden the screen turns all black and the arrow is moving around. I was in my bank account at the time, I cntr/alt/delete to cancel the program I was in and the arrow goes to the cancel my delete. Finally I pulled the plug. I know someone bad is operating my computer but I just do not know what to do. I'm fairly confident moving around a computer but do not know where to turn to stop this.

They should be able to recover your data at least. They may be able to put it on another computer and scan your drive and find out what happened. It probably won't be cheap but hopefully you will be okay. I am glad you took it to a professional. I hope you have another computer you can work on or use until they diagnose it.

I hope your bank account still has money in it.

 

[Atlanta CG]

They could not get rid of the virus, no matter what programs they used. However, they can provide a backup of the data, sans programs, but cannot guarantee it will be free of traces of the virus. Wiping the disk and reinstalling Windows is the only option, for $250 including the backup.

 

[Dale Floyd]

They could not get rid of the virus, no matter what programs they used. However, they can provide a backup of the data, sans programs, but cannot guarantee it will be free of traces of the virus. Wiping the disk and reinstalling Windows is the only option, for $250 including the backup.

That doesn’t sound like a typical virus. Do you have any idea how that program got on your drive in the first place? That’s scary stuff.

 

[Tom D]

If your computer is older, i would just spend that money on a new faster computer. Sorta like fixing an older car, not worth it sometimes You just learned, like most of the elderly here, you better have a backup of all the paid programs codes, emails, appraisal stuff and personal stuff. Either way you do it, you still have to spend the day loading all your other programs and setting them up. The pain can be the amount of other programs that you have to put the codes in to be functional.

Myself, if the computer is more than 3 years old, i replace when it's a hardware problem. Something that happens once can happen again in a month.

 

[sputnam]

They could not get rid of the virus, no matter what programs they used. However, they can provide a backup of the data, sans programs, but cannot guarantee it will be free of traces of the virus. Wiping the disk and reinstalling Windows is the only option, for $250 including the backup.

$250 is a reasonable price. I once had a virus that the regular techs couldn't cope with. They worked on the machine for a week with no success. They finally called in their senior guy. He fixed the issue in about 15 minutes.

 

[ZZGAMAZZ]

Windows 10 did just let me do extended updates on security updates til next year. I did run windows update and it said you are out of date. I went through some links and it led me to a site to get extended security updates and it did it. I ran windows update again and it said you are up to date.

Go figure. I need to put this dinosaur to sleep.

tonight all of the comma separaters in most of my comps are suddenly missing, so $677,000 now looks like 677000. I sure AF didn't change it. What happened?

 

[ZZGAMAZZ]

You did the right thing.

Propely setting up good security nowadays is getting complicated. In fact, "managing" every computer and device on your home network can be a time-consuming challenge. Nowadays, you want as few computers as possible. Every computer is another security nightmare to deal with.

In general:

1. Try to keep your business computers and devices isolated from all other computers and devices on your home network.
2. Avoid, as much as possible, websites known to be associated with criminal activity, such as ****, gaming, travel, etc..
3. Be very careful clicking on links in emails. Unsubscribe to websites you don't absolutely need. Report spam.
4. Use a good VPN like NordVPN (#1) or Proton (#2 - but has in some cases stronger security than NordVPN, although it will significantly slow access to websites). Purchase and enable all of their extra threat protection.
5. Make sure your firewalls are always active. Sometimes, you will need to disable them - but then you have to make sure to reenable them ASAP.
6. Use 2FA on everything.
7. Use Yubi keys.
8. Use Google Authenticator.
9. Use full disk encryption. On Apple, this is easy -->. And in fact, using Apple computers will reduce the probability of hackers getting into your system, because they are not nearly as prevalent as Windows systems.
10. Get used to using strong passwords of 25+ characters. 1Password is excellent for this. Passwords made up of names are easy to use. 1Password will generate this for you and you can pick one if it suits you, otherwise have it generate another. In 1Password, you can store all kinds of other vital information as well.
11. Have encrypted backups. Apple has Time Machine which is absolutely excellent and well integrated. They also have "File Vault" for disk encryption, which is also excellent.

The above just scratches the surface.

Last but not least: Your bank accounts are the most precious resource to protect. Always keep an eye on them. If you are NOT good at security, you might consider logging on to them every day!

Talk to ChatGPT about your computer and network security. It will give you plenty of good advice. It will remind you of things to check.

Is it usually safe to "Unsubscribe" to a site that keeps bugging, rather than "reporting spam and blocking"? I'm always worried that to "unsubscribe is a trap.

 

[Mike Ault]

Is it usually safe to "Unsubscribe" to a site that keeps bugging, rather than "reporting spam and blocking"? I'm always worried that to "unsubscribe is a trap.

I've never had negative consequences from unsubscribing. Just seems more polite.

 

[Mike Ault]

tonight all of the comma separaters in most of my comps are suddenly missing, so $677,000 now looks like 677000. I sure AF didn't change it. What happened?

What appraisal software are you running? Kind of strange that it didn't affect "all of your comps" in a similar manner.