Thread: My Computer was hacked into!

This is terrible...Someone stole my aol instant messenger password and started messaging all my contacts with mallicious messages. This morning when I get into work I start getting phone calls from people asking why I was cursing and saying such awful things to them, and i realized what happened. The problem is that 75% of people on my list are business contacts.

Solution = there is none. Or so I was told by aol. Because it is a free service (AIM) there is no support for stolen passwords. This has been one rough day...and it only gets worse as I have to call all these clients and friends to explain the situation. I think most people realize it is not me, but I've spent years building these contacts and this is truely embarrassing.

Sorry for venting...but I am just shocked someone is out there doing something like this.

Originally Posted by Gravitas

This is terrible...Someone stole my aol instant messenger password and started messaging all my contacts with mallicious messages. This morning when I get into work I start getting phone calls from people asking why I was cursing and saying such awful things to them, and i realized what happened. The problem is that 75% of people on my list are business contacts.

Solution = there is none. Or so I was told by aol. Because it is a free service (AIM) there is no support for stolen passwords. This has been one rough day...and it only gets worse as I have to call all these clients and friends to explain the situation. I think most people realize it is not me, but I've spent years building these contacts and this is truely embarrassing.

Sorry for venting...but I am just shocked someone is out there doing something like this.

Sorry to hear about this. I agree that most, if not all, of you clients and friends will understand after you've called them but it's never a good spot to be placed in for sure.

Do you know how your password was stolen?

Originally Posted by Bruno

Do you know how your password was stolen?

Not sure, someone suggested it was a program that used an algorithm to randomly generate pwd's until it broke it. I've never given the pw out so it's the only thing that makes sense to me.

Anyway it's been a problem. One of my clients wrote to me this morning "Hey, how's it going", and the guy wrote "Good, I'm watching some p0rn right now". Needless to say they called me right after and asked if someone was using my account. It's a form of identity theft, so I am considering reporting this to the police or FBI since AOL can not resolve the situation. I don't know what else he'll write so I at least want a report on record that I no longer have control over the account.

I work on Wall Street so you can imagine how fast information and rumors get around even if they're not true.

Originally Posted by Gravitas

Not sure, someone suggested it was a program that used an algorithm to randomly generate pwd's until it broke it. I've never given the pw out so it's the only thing that makes sense to me.

Anyway it's been a problem. One of my clients wrote to me this morning "Hey, how's it going", and the guy wrote "Good, I'm watching some p0rn right now". Needless to say they called me right after and asked if someone was using my account. It's a form of identity theft, so I am considering reporting this to the police or FBI since AOL can not resolve the situation. I don't know what else he'll write so I at least want a report on record that I no longer have control over the account.

I work on Wall Street so you can imagine how fast information and rumors get around even if they're not true.

Yes, I can. In your case I would file a report with the FBI because -if something bad happens- you have started a paper trail, and nobody can accuse you of negligence. Cover your ass. What happened to you is identity theft after all.

If you still have access to the account you should change the password to a strong one if it wasn't strong already.
Being the paranoid cynic I am, I would backup any data that is still important to you, reformat your hard drives, scan the backup for viri, reinstall the system and put the data back.

Turn on the windows firewall if it wasn't on already. If you can, buy a cheap home router to put between your pc and your internet connection. Then verify that all ports are closed by default so that nothing even gets to your windows firewall.
Then either install a virus scanner or be carefull not to run any stuff you shouldn't run.
And only use strong passwords.

I'd install a software firewall if you haven't already. Do NOT put faith in the Windows firewall! It's only slightly less porous than a sieve. I'd recommend Comodo or Kerio for good free software firewalls. I just switched from ZoneAlarm to Comodo because of security concerns. A good firewall will have no effect on someone running a cracking program on AOL, but it will help keep your local data safe.


Wayne

I'm by no means an expert, but I'd suggest that you ditch AOL Instant Messenger in favour of software that is more 'robust'. Anything produced by a massive corporation (such as AOL or Microsoft) is a rich target for mischeivous sorts, as well as being poorly constructed.

'Trillian' is a favoured Instant Messaging software package that integrates AIM, MSN etc. I've also heard excellent things about Skype, though you've got to convince everyone else you know to sign up as well.
A robust password that includes uppercase, lowercase, numerals and symbols (like these: !"£$%^) makes the whole thing very difficult to force without resorting to keylogging software (which your antivirus software should stamp on) or social engineering (asking you for your password, or finding the post-it note with the password written on it, 'cause your memory aint too hot).

Best of luck, dude. Sorry for your misfortune.