PC been hacked how do I protect my bank accounts ?

dunstonh

jimexbox said:

sparkiemalarkie said:

Hi DS PC has been hacked how s the best way to protect his bank accounts?

sx

Hopefully they don't save all passwords/log-in infomation in a file?

If anyone does store sentive information on their PC, use something like Veracrypt to strongly encrypt the file. Or better, encrypt the file to a usb stick.

or a password manager like Bitwarden.

His google email account is still not sorted nor the youtube channel with a lot of revenue on.

Basically, anything to do with google will be at risk because of that. That includes any websites or apps that use google authentication to log in.

sparkiemalarkie

dunstonh said:

jimexbox said:

sparkiemalarkie said:

Hi DS PC has been hacked how s the best way to protect his bank accounts?

sx

Hopefully they don't save all passwords/log-in infomation in a file?

If anyone does store sentive information on their PC, use something like Veracrypt to strongly encrypt the file. Or better, encrypt the file to a usb stick.

or a password manager like Bitwarden.

His google email account is still not sorted nor the youtube channel with a lot of revenue on.

Basically, anything to do with google will be at risk because of that. That includes any websites or apps that use google authentication to log in.

Does anyone know how to talk to Google ? It seems impossible to get any help.

masonic

jimexbox said:

masonic said:

jimexbox said:

sparkiemalarkie said:

Hi DS PC has been hacked how s the best way to protect his bank accounts?

sx

Hopefully they don't save all passwords/log-in infomation in a file?

If anyone does store sentive information on their PC, use something like Veracrypt to strongly encrypt the file. Or better, encrypt the file to a usb stick.

Such a precaution is useful in case the device is lost or stolen, but not much use if the contents are accessed on a compromised device.

An encrypted file is useless to anyone without the key. Be that a hacker or a thief. 

Perhaps give my post a read before replying. I said "Such a precaution is useful in case the device is lost or stolen, but not much use if the contents are accessed on a compromised device."

So, riddle me this... How do you access the contents on the compromised device without revealing the key to the compromised device?

The moment you enter any master password or decryption key on a compromised device, you should consider the encryption compromised also. This is why the encryption used to attempt to prevent DVDs being illegally copied was not capable of working. All that is needed is to watch the device perform the decryption and an observer could reproduce it.

Sg28

jimexbox said:

masonic said:

jimexbox said:

sparkiemalarkie said:

Hi DS PC has been hacked how s the best way to protect his bank accounts?

sx

Hopefully they don't save all passwords/log-in infomation in a file?

If anyone does store sentive information on their PC, use something like Veracrypt to strongly encrypt the file. Or better, encrypt the file to a usb stick.

Such a precaution is useful in case the device is lost or stolen, but not much use if the contents are accessed on a compromised device.

An encrypted file is useless to anyone without the key. Be that a hacker or a thief. 

A decent hacker with enough resourses can crack most encryptions.

Unlikely they'd bother with the effort for a random individual, unless its poor encryption. 

masonic

sparkiemalarkie said:

dunstonh said:

jimexbox said:

sparkiemalarkie said:

Hi DS PC has been hacked how s the best way to protect his bank accounts?

sx

Hopefully they don't save all passwords/log-in infomation in a file?

If anyone does store sentive information on their PC, use something like Veracrypt to strongly encrypt the file. Or better, encrypt the file to a usb stick.

or a password manager like Bitwarden.

His google email account is still not sorted nor the youtube channel with a lot of revenue on.

Basically, anything to do with google will be at risk because of that. That includes any websites or apps that use google authentication to log in.

Does anyone know how to talk to Google ? It seems impossible to get any help.

Does he have a contact at YouTube? Larger channels tend to have access to better support.

If he has a recovery email address or phone number still set up on his Google account that could be used to reset and regain control of that. Is he still logged in on any device? Does he have passkeys set up?

Sg28

sparkiemalarkie said:

Thank you all.... 
He clicked on a link to download an attachment and within seconds he was locked out of his email account, youtube channel, steam account  and probably other things too.
Banking security has now been changed.
His google email account is still not sorted nor the youtube channel with a lot of revenue on.
It's so difficult to find where to report the hacking to try to recover everything.

sx

Have you tried the google recovery process? To reset using backup email or phone number.

Dont try this on the compromised device and also disconnect it from your wifi network as a precaution. There will be malware installed which could lead to access to other devices on your network. 

Is/was there antivirus installed? 

Tell him to change any other passwords on any other accounts anywhere that match his Google password. 

Most (all?) Banks use some form of 2 factor authentication so its unlikely that your bank accounts will be at risk.
Phising for bank access will normally be in the form a malware which spoofs the url of you bank so when you try to log in your details are captured and used in real time by the hacker.

The revenue on the google account is another matter. 

GeoffTF

sparkiemalarkie said:

dunstonh said:

jimexbox said:

sparkiemalarkie said:

Hi DS PC has been hacked how s the best way to protect his bank accounts?

sx

Hopefully they don't save all passwords/log-in infomation in a file?

If anyone does store sentive information on their PC, use something like Veracrypt to strongly encrypt the file. Or better, encrypt the file to a usb stick.

or a password manager like Bitwarden.

His google email account is still not sorted nor the youtube channel with a lot of revenue on.

Basically, anything to do with google will be at risk because of that. That includes any websites or apps that use google authentication to log in.

Does anyone know how to talk to Google ? It seems impossible to get any help.

You cannot talk to Google. You can, however, use Google's recovery procedure (from a clean device):

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7682439?hl=en

It may be closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, but you should enable 2FA for your Google account, and keep a set of backup keys. For maximum security, you can use a physical security key, such as Google's Titan key (or better still two of them):

https://store.google.com/gb/product/titan_security_key?hl=en-GB

That that may be over the top for most people though. Never click on links in emails or text messages! I use separate devices for my financial accounts and emails/messages.

km1500

it would be interesting to know how clicking on a link and downloading an attachment and even running an attachment would lock you out of your Steam account and your google account.

does anybody have any idea how this works?

dunstonh

GeoffTF said:

sparkiemalarkie said:

dunstonh said:

jimexbox said:

sparkiemalarkie said:

Hi DS PC has been hacked how s the best way to protect his bank accounts?

sx

Hopefully they don't save all passwords/log-in infomation in a file?

If anyone does store sentive information on their PC, use something like Veracrypt to strongly encrypt the file. Or better, encrypt the file to a usb stick.

or a password manager like Bitwarden.

His google email account is still not sorted nor the youtube channel with a lot of revenue on.

Basically, anything to do with google will be at risk because of that. That includes any websites or apps that use google authentication to log in.

Does anyone know how to talk to Google ? It seems impossible to get any help.

You cannot talk to Google. You can, however, use Google's recovery procedure:

https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/7682439?hl=en

It may be closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, but you should enable 2FA for your Google account, and keep a set of backup keys. For maximum security, you can use a physical security key, such as Google's Titan key (or better still two of them):

https://store.google.com/gb/product/titan_security_key?hl=en-GB

That that may be over the top for most people though.

We use 2FA with an authenticator.   Authy being my preferred authenticator.   We gave the Yubi keys a go (similar to Titan) but found they just got left plugged into the USB slot, which was fine if there was a remote hack/theft but not pretty useless if it was a physical theft.

km1500

this might be better moved to the techie board