webcam hacked?

[AfterBurners]

A couple months ago I had someone hack my webcam and on top of that basically sent me a text message saying they did it in so many words. I immediately disabled it in Device Manager and also checked my firewall settings, which are fine. What pisses me off is they sent me another message today. Maybe they are bored because they can no longer access my webcam. I also took the extra step and covered the lens with a "Post It"

My concern is could they have access to lets say other things such as my bank accounts online, my Facebook Page, other web pages I visit like TRF or other forums, passwords etc? I'm computer savvy for the most part and I have Webroot that covers intrusion, but it's not the top of line software.

Is there a way I can hide my IP address? Apparently there are people out there with nothing better to do than to spy on others and because some of us unwillingly broadcast our IP address this is actually legal, unless the site I was on misrepresented itself. Since then I deactivated my Facebook account, since my family and friends on there and not sure if this individual can access their accounts.

I'm pretty pissed off. I called my cell phone provider and they told me stuff I already know by blocking the incoming text number and also you can do the same in the call logs.

I actually called the number and some girl mid aged answered the phone. When I asked her what her problem was she hung up on me. Its a local number to me. I wish there was someway I could track her number off her GPS on her phone, but I kmow only the authorities can do that.

 

[Worsaer]

You essentially need a hardware firewall at your Internet gateway router. That screens you off from incoming network traffic. If your PC is already compromised, however, you may have more work to do to get back to a secure configuration.

 

[AfterBurners]

You essentially need a hardware firewall at your Internet gateway router. That screens you off from incoming network traffic. If your PC is already compromised, however, you may have more work to do to get back to a secure configuration.

If they had access to the webcam do they have access to everything else? I haven't noticed anything suspicious on my accounts or phone

 

[CORZERO]

Start here:

https://www.backtrack-linux.org/

https://metasploit.com/

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[CORZERO]

If they had access to the webcam do they have access to everything else? I haven't noticed anything suspicious on my accounts or phone

Yes.

 

[dixontj93060]

Wow, scary!

 

[AfterBurners]

AT&T is coming out and I'm switching from cable to Direct TV and they are bringing new equipment. Is it possible with the new router that they can program it so it's more secure?

 

[AfterBurners]

Start here:

https://www.backtrack-linux.org/

https://metasploit.com/

Let me know if you have any questions.

I'm looking at the websites now. I guess from the introduction Backtrack allows you to test the security of your own network correct?

 

[CORZERO]

ISP's issue dynamic IP addresses. This means your external IP address will change according to your ISP's schedule. This leads me to believe that whoever is playing with you is someone you know and trust to some level and may have an intimate relationship with you in some capacity or have physical access to your network and/or computer/s in order to keep up with your IP. This means you are being surveilled. Call your ISP for instructions to have a new IP issued and stay offline for a week. If you notice the activity persists, then it's time to start researching the two links I sent in my previous post and start actively monitoring your network.

 

[mpitfield]

You essentially need a hardware firewall at your Internet gateway router. That screens you off from incoming network traffic. If your PC is already compromised, however, you may have more work to do to get back to a secure configuration.

Not quite. A firewall means different things to different people. At its basic level it provides NAT (Network Address Translation) which simply provides you with anonymity behind your "firewall". Technically it translates your private address to the IP of the public side of the router/firewall. Next up is using ARs (Access Rules) to provide a rules based allow, deny or discard of traffic, both ingress or egress (inboud or outbound). So for example you could set a rule that allows unsolicited traffic from the internet or WAN to your network, and even go as far as to translate it to a specific IP or device. Typically up from there is something called SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection), which is a technology that was developed by ChekPoint back in the mid 90s. I recall when this came out and it was expensive and big back then. However today it is not a relevant technology and it is part of most garden variety $50.00 routers you pick up from BestBuy. This technology simply maintains a table on the firewall of outgoing traffic and what is expected in return, if it is not expected then it is dropped. The weakness is that has no visibility into the data portion of each packet as it traverses the firewall. So if you click on a threat to download it, the firewall is technically expecting it and will simply allow the traffic in...not very smart or relevant today.

SPI is not relevant today because of how most systems are currently exploited. This is the same reason that NAT and access rules can be made ineffective, which is to use social engineering. Social engineering in the context of cyber security can be simply explained as the attacker tricks the target into allowing the attacker in and then sets up shop

The type of firewall that you need would be higher priced than you are likely to want to spend, and it has a yearly renewable subscription component. This type of a firewall scrutinizes the data portion of the packets as they traverse the firewall and drops the packets before they are reassembled into whatever data you are downloading. Generically this is called UTM (Unified Threat Management) or DPI (Deep Packet Inspection), and consists of an engine that looks into data for viruses, spyware and has an intrusion detection/prevention component, as well as content filtering, YMMV as it varies by manufacturer. Also even with this level of protection threats still get through.

My advice to you would be to back up your data only, perform a full system wipe with some free disk wipe software like Darik's Boot and Nuke, hit it at a DoD short, then reload your O/S and software. Once it is built upgrade everything with the latest patches and install a decent AV product. I would stay clear from torrents and any software that you are not 100% confident that is safe, they are a haven for exploited software. Also make sure that when you setup your user profile remove it from the local admin users group so it is a basic user, and make sure it has a password. Then create another local admin account, again with a password and not the same as your user account, and name it something like "admn". When you need to install anything and UAC prompts for an account with admin permissions just input the admn user account credentials.

There is a lot more that you could do on your computer to maintain security, however some of it relies on a certain level of knowledge to understand what you are doing.

I would also secure your router, change the default password, reset it to factory, and if you have wireless use WPA2 with a PSK that is at least 40 characters long and random, I use GRC pwd generator found here. Keep in mind that security and convenience are the the opposite ends of the scale, so passwords should be complex and by that nature they are typically impossible to remember and a PITA.

As far as the web cam is concerned, disable it and cut a little round piece of low tack painters masking tape and stuck it over the camera, it works fine and doesn't look like crap.

 

[Winston]

My concern is could they have access to lets say other things such as my bank accounts online, my Facebook Page, other web pages I visit like TRF or other forums, passwords etc?

Absolutely.

For scanning, I don't really trust anything other than a BOOT TIME scan before the OS is even loaded. Download this (it's free), ideally from a different computer, and burn it to a CD-ROM, DVD, or USB drive, ideally on a different computer, and run it via whatever "Select boot device" key you need to press with your BIOS on your infected machine. The program will download the latest malware signature file before scanning your PC:

https://support.kaspersky.com/viruses/rescuedisk

The info you need to use it is on that download page via links found there. They say, "Kaspersky Rescue Disk is a free tool for disinfecting computers from malware which does not allow the operating system to start," but I believe that the best way to actually find stealth (self-hiding) malware is to avoid loading the operating system it has apparently infected!

Out of curiosity, let us know what you find.

 

[bobby_hamill]

even though you cant track a cell phone in a reverse lookup try the number anyway and see what you get

try anywho

https://www.anywho.com/reverse-lookup

A couple months ago I had someone hack my webcam and on top of that basically sent me a text message saying they did it in so many words. I immediately disabled it in Device Manager and also checked my firewall settings, which are fine. What pisses me off is they sent me another message today. Maybe they are bored because they can no longer access my webcam. I also took the extra step and covered the lens with a "Post It"

My concern is could they have access to lets say other things such as my bank accounts online, my Facebook Page, other web pages I visit like TRF or other forums, passwords etc? I'm computer savvy for the most part and I have Webroot that covers intrusion, but it's not the top of line software.

Is there a way I can hide my IP address? Apparently there are people out there with nothing better to do than to spy on others and because some of us unwillingly broadcast our IP address this is actually legal, unless the site I was on misrepresented itself. Since then I deactivated my Facebook account, since my family and friends on there and not sure if this individual can access their accounts.

I'm pretty pissed off. I called my cell phone provider and they told me stuff I already know by blocking the incoming text number and also you can do the same in the call logs.

I actually called the number and some girl mid aged answered the phone. When I asked her what her problem was she hung up on me. Its a local number to me. I wish there was someway I could track her number off her GPS on her phone, but I kmow only the authorities can do that.

 

[bobby_hamill]

before you scan PC boot up in safe mode and disconnect internet while scanning

 

[blackwing94]

What mpitfield said is great advice. "security and convenience are the opposite ends of the scale".

Do the best you can to limit your exposure. That's as good as it gets. As you attempt to get more secure, your cost will go up exponentially.

I used to work in computer security. Retired now. I had these sayings hanging on my office wall,

"Security is not happy until productivity goes to zero".

There are only two rules.
1) You can't win.
2) You have to play.

:wink: