Last night at 8pm, everything was ok, I can access my facebook, hotmail and gmail accounts, no problem. Then I felt tired and took a nap. At about 10pm+, I woke up, went to my PC... and found that I can't access my hotmail, gmail and facebook accounts with my passwords. Gmail and facebook unfortunately I used the same passwords, hotmail I used a different passwords, all inaccessible. Managed to reset the passwords though... Gmail = using my handphone no. to reset hotmail = trusted pc to set facebook = I forgot how I reset it Should be after I regained access to my gmail coz that's the primary email I used for facebook In short, it was a scary experience. Now, I'm wondering how did that happened. The only thing I can think of are: - I used the "remember me options in all 3 accounts when I login - I also use the save password feature on firefox (the master password for my list was the same with gmail and facebook ) So, that may be one way to gain entry. Furthermore, I didn't set password for my PC (which I've set since). Another point of entry may be my father's PC which is networked to mine and my mom's. My father's is infested with trojans and viruses which I'm lazy to format and install or clean. Will do that today or tomorrow. It was a really really scary experience to lose control like that! So, I've: - set all gmail, hotmail, facebook accounts with different passwords now, strong passwords which I hope I can remember. - login to all accounts without using the "remember me" check box (for msn and yahoo messengers as well) - removed important accounts from my firefox "saved password" list - Added all my emails addresses into all my email accounts and facebook, so that I don't have one as primary if it's compromised, at least then I have a few more to regain access... Now, all I can do is pray that it won't happen again...
Could be a key logger installed on your computer? It is scary only if you have sensitive data... Don't you have a antivirus/antispyware + firewall installed? Anyway, it's a good thing you managed to regain access...
I checked the running processes for keyloggers last night too... nothing seems amiss. Hmm... I do have Windows 7 firewall running as well as AVG. Last night I downloaded Search & Destroy, did a scan.. nothing much, just some cookies found. Hmm... any software to recommend to scan for keyloggers?
I wouldn't rely on Windows firewall. Usually I go with Eset products like Smart Security or NOD32 which has a good price for 12+6 months of use. Kaspersky is good, you can try this tool - Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool Download I also use the Spybot S&D... CA Anti Spyware could be an option too but I haven't used it. And I use Secunia Personal Software Inspector (Secunia PSI)to check for software/security updates.
Hmm.. Odd. One of your accounts may get hacked but unless you use the same login and password for your other accounts, it's quite hard to hack all three accounts at the same time. I would check for keyloggers and trojans too.
Thankfully they are recovered. Losing control of these accounts can be a nightmare! Next time try setting a few different passwords on different accounts. And try not to save them in the browser too. I didn't save mine, and manually type everytime I log into something.
Saving the passwords using the browser isn't a problem unless your computer gets compromised by a trojan / keylogger, or you let someone access your computer.
Yeah, best option would be to start with a new slate. Move your data out and do a fresh install of the operating system and apps.
It's not 2 years for me yet. Anyway, just formatted and reinstalled everything. Installed Comodo firewall too just for the heck of it. LOL... using the basic firewall only though, don't want so many pop-ups. Now, let's pray the hacker doesn't see me... please go find Adrian..
That's scary. Don't know what I would have done. Having to reinstall everything is one of my fears. Don't know if there's a medical name for this phobia.
Imagine if Google comes out with hardware token or software token using some phone software, it's just the time.
LOL!! Why find me?? But seriously, my Hotmail account got hacked a few months ago. Folks were asking me why I keep sending them spam mail. In fact, Hotmail actually locked my account because of spam! Luckily, it was a very old and very simple password that failed. I got the Hotmail team to unlock the account and I changed the password and now everything's working right again. Phew!
