Have I been hacked?

sparklewing

Hi,

I was browsing the net this afternoon and I clicked on a website in my history bar.

Instead of the normal homepage of that website I was redirected and a screen popped up that said in big black writing:

Hacked
Your machine is owned by

there was more and might have been a link at the bottom but to be honest I saw it and panicked and immediately shut down the net. Also can't remember what the web address was that I was redirected to. Possibly EZnet or something like that. Have revisited site as was hoping it had maybe been them that had been hacked but it seems fine.

I have AVG virus software installed and Spy Doctor virus and anti spyware both of which do daily chekcs, am just running them again now bu they aren't finding anything other than the usual adware and tracking cookies. I'm also running a Windows defender scan.

I'm panicking a bit because I do all my banking etc online and now I'm too scared to put my details anywhere in case someone is in my machine. I can get a family friend to do whatever IT type people do to fix computers but not for a couple of weeks.

Any suggestions? Thanks

ormus

try running spybot and also hijackthis.
maybe adaware too?

sparklewing

Well according to spywarebots 2 minute scan I have 320 infections that got past the rest of my spyware but they'll only fix it if I register and pay $40. Cynical me?

C_Ronaldo

Is you firewall on and upto date and the same with your AV,

GreenNotM

Follow the first 4 posts in this thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=133269 Only use the links in the thread to download the correct tools - do not google for them.

Never pay for software to remove "things" it has found but others haven't -

Post a HJT log if you need to after followung the 1st 4 posts in the http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=133269 thread

Retired_I.F.A.

Why should you worry about your bank account being hacked unless your saft enough to have the password/s on a file in the pc somewhere?

superscaper

Retired_I.F.A. wrote: »

Why should you worry about your bank account being hacked unless your saft enough to have the password/s on a file in the pc somewhere?

It's not unreasonable to assume there may have been or currently is a keylogger which makes it irrelevant if the passwords are stored on the pc somewhere or not. They tend to be quite common with spyware. The OP has reacted quite sensibly for a suspected compromised machine.

Retired_I.F.A.

A keylogger ? I presume thats where windows takes over and fills in the rest of ones password?. Thats never happened with mine. (I bank with nat west) Does that mean there could be a keylogger but its just not being used ?

GreenNotM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keystroke_logging

superscaper

Retired_I.F.A. wrote: »

A keylogger ? I presume thats where windows takes over and fills in the rest of ones password?. Thats never happened with mine. (I bank with nat west) Does that mean there could be a keylogger but its just not being used ?

A common piece of spyware is called a keylogger and it simply logs all the keyboard strokes you make. I.e. everything you type into your pc is recorded and then sent to the person who created/sent the keylogger. They can then extract any passwords etc that you've typed into your pc and use them to log in to those accounts. You're not meant to have a keylogger installed and is one of the things antispyware software typically scans for.

If you suspect your pc is infected, it isn't just what's on your pc that could be compromised but you have to assume everything you do on the pc is being "watched".

robt_2

Retired_I.F.A. wrote: »

A keylogger ? I presume thats where windows takes over and fills in the rest of ones password?. Thats never happened with mine. (I bank with nat west) Does that mean there could be a keylogger but its just not being used ?

No, that is not a keylogger. A keylogger is exactly what its name implies - it records every character you make on the keyboard, and would normally send the data captured back to someone who could then use it.