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Why hackers are picking on Me?

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by nandorodzband

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Lately, hackers have been getting into my computer to the extent that they have changed the settings in one of my computers. I know who they are and here it is for anyone who had the same problems.

apache/1.3.14 server at www.westinteractive.com port 80

The question is? how can I stop these bastards from continuing to access my computers?

Why they pick us insignificant people is beyond my comprehention !!! People be aware of this bastards. Their phone line is locate at this number 402-952-4007. OK Somone Help Please !!!!!!!

5 replies

by haoviet

When a person cracked into your computer, she/he didn't care who you were; the only thing they were interested in were your unsecured machine. You should have your machine secured with firewall and should disable services that you don't need. For Windows users, I recommend zonealarm, a no-cost personal firewall. You can get it from http://www.zonelabs.com

by rzan

If you are on a corporate network, it would be wise to invest in a hardware firewall solution such as a Cisco Pix Firewall. If you are talking about a standalone machine at home, then I would highly recommend something like Blackice Defender or Norton Personal Firewall. These software packages monitor your TCP and UDP ports and can tell you if you are being scanned, the IP and MAC address of the person scanning you, the date and time, what ports are being scanned, as well as provides a log file as evidence. You may also want to get a program like Hacktrace or NeoTrace Pro to be able to trace back to the network and geographic location of the person scanning you. There is also a function in these packages to report the offending hacker to a website which investigates such hacking attempts. All in all, firewall yourself to block access to open ports. Once you setup a scanner, you will have log files which you will be able to submit to the FBI and/or your local police department's computer crimes investigation unit. FYI..some of these hackers are juvenile little punks with too much free time on their hands. The average ages of some of these hackers/crackers is between 12-17 years of age.

by ebob

It is now, officially, the 21st Century!

Hackers, crackers, whatever, getting into your systems and messing things up SHOULD NOT come as surprise to anybody. We should already know that we need to "practice safe Hex". At a bare minimum:

1 - run virus protection and keep it up to date
2 - hide behind a firewall, either software for single computers of very small networks (ZoneAlarm is FREE so what's the excuse?) or hardware (DSL "Routers" for small/home networks, "real" firewalls for corporate networks)
3 - When you're not using the network, shut down (including your Cable/DSL "Modem")
3a - "Corollary": If using analogue dial-up, make sure "Auto-Answer" is disabled on your modem.
4 - Do backups.
5 - Don't download every little bit of freeware/shareware that you run into, and still expect to not have problems.
6 - NEVER open an unsolicited email attachment except from a "trusted" source.
7 - Use passwords. Change them from time to time (including your home system(s)).
8 - Use PGP (or some similar product) for digital signatures and encryption, where appropriate.
9 - Do not use "chat", instant messaging, video conferencing, and such "tools" without a lot of protection, AND without expecting problems.

"Why is this important to keep [cr|h]ackers out of my box?" Because it's real easy to write a script that you can run on your box which will send the [cr|h]acker a lot of info about your system (passwords, network addresses, protocols and services in use, etc.).

by shanghai sam

i hope the following advice will help:
the previous posts about getting a firewall, antivirus etc needs to be followed urgently.

the hackers have probably left a backdoor in your system (actually, if they know what they are doing then there will be many backdoors).

installing a product like zonealarm will help you a lot as it will tell you when an application is trying to get through to the internet. you can then allow or deny the program. be very careful though, because some backdoor programs can be renamed, so if internet explorer is trying to get to the internet ask yourself "did i launch internet explorer? is there any reason it should be trying to connect to the internet?"

(NT/2000)have you checked who's in the admin/power users etc group? is it everyone that you know to be correct? is there any extra accounts?

have you checked the startup folder for strange programs?
check the following registry keys for strange programs:

HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\run*

get the latest virus dat file for your antivirus product as they also pick up nasty trojans like Back orifice.

the bad news is that it's possible you can't clean your system completely. If you decide that you are going to reinstall then please please please

DON'T use the same username /password combinations.
DON'T restore from a recent backup (you'll just end up restoring the trojans as well, and you don't really know how long the cracker has been using your system)

make sure you are up to date on all the service packs and patches. Microsoft has recently updated thier security patch section. It is now much easier to see what patches you require for a combination of OS and service packs URL...

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/current.asp

hope this helps.

by gshollingsworth

I checked a couple of things. It appears you are using a Unix OS, so little of the Win advice applies to you. How far in have they gotten? Have you rebuilt these systems to be sure backdoors are eliminated? Have you done any hardening? Are you firewalling? Do you have a DMZ? How do you know their phone number? Sorry, but not enough info to really help yet.

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