System might have been infiltrated? Ideas?

Mattykins

Mattykins

Cute Member
Hey all,

Just have a minor computer issue I thought I would ask about. I have a fear that a stalker I've managed to pick up as of late has infiltrated my laptop. Basically I had some issues surrounding AIM today and then came to the knowledge that she very well might have been continually logged on my computer. How this is possible, I have no idea. I am basically going through running checks, deleting caches, checking settings on my Mac now.

Also shutting down all network connections and checking each one independently. Any one have any idea how this is even possible on a mac platform? Last I checked there was nothing allowing back door entries as of yet. And anyone have ideas of what to do to expedite the investigation into this?

Thanks,

Matt
 
There are known virus, that can infect very very deeply I'm not going to go into detail how it does it, but I will say that the only known way to eradicate those type is to desmantle your PC and rebuild, because it can hide in your graphics card resident memory, so a clean OS install does not delete it, with the added complection that it hides from the OS itself.

Don;t know if it can be done on a mac, I think Macs OS is linux based which means I think in theory the virus can use the same methods.

If your really worried physically disconnect your internet connection.
 
You can never have too many firewalls. It's a good idea to use a router between your modem and computer, as most of them have firewalls and intrusion detectors and MAC address filters and all sorts of barriers you can erect in additional to Apple's built in firewall. And stay away from bittorrent if you can. Every time I've been on there my router detects an intrusion attempt.
 
yes firewalls are very important, have at least one enabled. and use a NAT for your router :D , most of them have that built in? anyways
 
Its almost impossible for someone to get into a mac unless you have recently installed some software. If you have cable or dsl you use a router which has a firewall built in it. Mac has a program that is called remote desktop which when installed and implemented can let someone thru your firewall. Unless you have had your computer fixed lately or someone has had access to it then its probably not this and something you have installed. Some new emails that are out there can carry viruses that can effect unix based OS's. I don't install anything without knowing where it comes from. I don't use any virus software and have only had one problem on the old mac OS ten years ago. I don't like to run this kind of software because I have found that it will affect my video programs.

There are a few nasty viruses for the mac and more for the Unix based models than before Unix. I once had to unhook all cards and extras and remove the battery for a minute and then reinstall everything and then it was fine. I once had to do reinstall but I got away without having to do a clean install. My best friend Eddie has supported macs and pc form the beginning and has the most experience with Macs of anybody that I have met. Hence this is why he's my best friend.

Remote Desktop is so you can get into you Mac form the office or anywhere else. Somebody could have put in onto your machine and be remotely seeing everything you do. It has happened before.

I'll call him and ask him what he thinks

You can call me at 206-330-2075 or 206-851-6534 cell.

Good luck.
 
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Jeez.
I take it our not on wireless?
Your network provider should have a past log of all sites you've visited and the dates & times. I think it goes back 3 months. Not sure how that will help.

Virus wise, you could check your 'active connections' if you have that option from your firewall, and look for an odd running program.
Usually the firewall programs have a log of some sort for connection attempts.
Some show the callers names & address, city, ect.
But if the program only uploads while your computer is dormant, like when the screen saver pops up, or during windows load, it'd be hard to catch.

Sounds like a job for Super-Geek. Sure there's one around here somewhere.
Good luck man.

Actually, come to think of it, why don't you ask over at DreamInCode.com.
There are some pro's over there.
 
there are certain virus's that will not show up anywere on your system and will not even be detected by the best virus scanners, etc, without going into too much details, there are ways around firewalls, from very simple ones too more elaborate ways, the fact that a large % of firewalls are not correctly set up does not help the situation.
 
Hi I just talked to Eddie and he said that if your running AIM then that is a Java program and it can do just about anything. With it someone can include a script which can send your finalcials or address book or anything else because it opened you up from the inside of your machine. Its your machine doing the calling not hers. if your are running a wireless router that is keeping a log of ip addresses than you can block her address. The problem is if see has already sent a script she can just reopen it. It depends on how savey she is. The first thing to do is to delete her for your address book. If that doesn't seem to work you can call me and I'll put you in touch with Eddie whom doesn't belong to this list.

Eddie had one of our friends reach in and take over his desktop and change the desktop picture to a photo of himself, which to say the least was a surprise. It was done with a script inside of AIM. I went off AOL years ago because of their lack of security. Hopefully you don't do online banking with this computer and if you do you should not be using AIM!
Good luck!
 
I have had problems with AIM myself and sometimes I think someone may have hacked at least my AOL account. What happens is whenever I run the program, my computer runs extremely slow. This should not happen on this device under any circumstance. Further, when I am logged into AIM I often get pop up boxes informing me that my account is being signed into on another computer.

Best of luck!
 
Thanks everyone. I think I have it straightened out. I am 97% sure AIM was the issue. Good thing this is only for internet and apart of a render farm. All my financial documents are on a separate computer off the network.

You think you are savvy - and then someone blows you away. I have since restricted AIM to only allow people I add to be able to message me. I have a few friends who I stay in touch with through there.

And michael, thanks so much for the help. And Anhar, thanks for scaring the crap out of me. haha.

Crises might be averted? We shall see. Again, thanks all.
 
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