A spy in your computer? Here is what to do about it

Mods,

I was unsure where to post this - but trolls and spies are both creeps, so here goes.

I have known for some time that someone was getting into my computer and checking out all my moves. What alerted me was that my clock was always an hour slow when I logged on.

So last night I typed a message in drafts - not sent, remember, just a draft - and wow it was received!

My draft message was to the point, and I told the spy that they were pathetic and I knew they were there, and could they leave my clock on the correct time - today my clock is correct.

I also told the spy to stop wasting their time and to look for the real terrorists and killers.

Do you think that all ATS members are checked out like this?

reply to post by catwhoknowsplusone

Why would the clock time alter?

BTW my clock is fine..
Maybe I haven't said enough bad things about the Government, but I doubt that..

Its funny you say that.... had the same idea about things a few years back.

www.abovetopsecret.com...

You never know...

Thanks for your (heavy sigh she is nuts) answers, guys.

Could you please explain why a draft was replied to?

Not sent, remember (gotta spell it out).

I am talking to myself.

That's OK, I am probably the only intelligent person listening.

Does no-one wonder why a draft, which was not sent, was received?

Without seeking to insult, the most probable explanations are:

1) User end error... a lack of understanding of the technology or application or process involved.
2) Spyware/malware - with particular emphasis upon remote networking trojans.

While there is certainly evidence to suggest that governments monitor data streams, it is far less likely that they are remotely accessing individual systems - especially on a recurring basis.

Re: The clock... The most likely culprit is that you have your time zone incorrectly set and the system, upon boot, is reflecting this incorrect setting.

~Heff

If I had known that I would be questioned as to having half a brain by a few men, I would never have posted this.

Thanks for your replies, and thanks for no-one even attempting to answer why my unsent email was replied to, and suddenly for the first time in 3 weeks my clock remained unchanged.

Because you cannot explain it.

reply to post by catwhoknowsplusone


Speaking as a half brained man.... I did answer.

You either don't understand the software and how it works or you have a remote networking trojan that is allowing someone access to your hard drive.

Or you can simply assume that the government hired somebody to dig through your system every so often. Whatever works for you.

~Heff

ETA: If you use web based email another possibility is that your password has been phished or hacked.

I don't think I could begin to accurately speculate on why it was received, if it was coincidence, etc. That being said, I wanted to respond to the topic of the thread, which I hope isn't too much of an off tangent. I apologize if it is.

If you are exceptionally concerned about someone or some software infiltrating your system here are the steps you can follow to stop this (at least from them directly infiltrating your system, this does nothing for line tapping, IP/MAC address logging, or any other form of monitoring/tracking that would occur outside of your physical computer)
1. Download all updates, drivers, etc that you would need if you were going to reinstall your OS.
2. Download a virtualization program, Sun's Virtual Box is open source, free, and fairly easy to set up.
3. Burn both of those to a non-rewritable CD/DVD/Bluray. Perform these three steps from a known clean computer.
4. disconnect computer from any network, including a non internet connected LAN.
5. completely format all drives, including removable media (though it may be better to just toss said removables). Here I would use a utility that will perform complete fills/deletes of the whole drive in addition to reformat.
6. perform a clean install
7. Install your virtualization software, set up at least one virtual machine with an operating system, your safest bets being an OS that is linux/unix/mac based.
8. Install drivers and such, including any additional software, security suite, etc in your base OS.
9. Do any online action through the VM, most likely if you get infiltrated again it will only be the VM that gets infiltrated and with a couple clicks of a button and the span of 5 minutes it can be wiped out and recreated cleanly.

This is by no means full proof, there are no full proof security methods short of never connecting to any form of network and never using removable media.

EDIT: The only way an unsent email draft on a non-web based email client could have been received by a potential infiltrator is if they had remote access to your system which could be had in any number of ways, but most likely as stated by a previous poster would be some sort of trojan like a key logger or remote access.
If it was a web based email client the most likely scenario would be, again as stated by a previous poster would be if they had gotten your password via phishing, cracking, etc.
Another potential is that if you use wireless internet, it is remarkably easy to intercept most wireless traffic without directly infiltrating a system. This interception is even a two way street meaning the perpetrator can send you false web pages, a faked web login screen is statistically more viable as a way of gaining logins/passwords than phishing given the percentages of people on non/weakly encrypted/secured wireless networks. Even if you did not send the email, but had used a web based email service to save the draft in, you are still sending that data to a server somewhere.

On it's way to the server that message is bouncing through several random nodes before getting to the server all of which could be compromised, but that is where speculation begins bordering on paranoia.

reply to post by Hefficide


I know you answered, Heff.

I understand the software. Does the software suddenly get a fright when it reads my draft?

Come on.

Do not speak down to me. I do not speak down to you (well maybe, if you keep saying I am dumb...)

reply to post by catwhoknowsplusone


Hang on...the UNsent draft email had a *reply*?

What reply? You said the clock hadn't changed for the first time in 3 weeks...do you count this as the reply?

Or was there an actual, written reply?

BTW, the Government (all Western govs) have the ability to scan every individual computer connected to the net...every one. In addition to the computers, all communications are monitored, every text, every email, every video message, every call...and yes, every forum post - anywhere is monitored continually.

Echellon (supercomputer interlinked system) *was* able to do this almost two decades ago...think what can be done *now*.

(and NO..a human operator doesn't sit there, ging through all your files and comms...there are bots and data miners that hunt for keys...if it finds a key, it looks for more and if it finds enough of a pattern, the file, email, image, text, post, blog is flagged and raised up for a human to check out in more depth.

This is common knowledge...there's no conspiracy theory here, iow..i'm not dreaming about a 'what if scenario'...they actually do this *all the time*.

I've said it before many times on here, *be careful what you write*, you *are* being monitored...citizen.

reply to post by baphometBetty


Hi Betty,

Thanks for your extremely detailed reply.

No, I am not freaked out - I have sent that person packing.

Cheers!

reply to post by spikey


Spikey,

You are the first person who got it!

When I clicked properties, my draft had been read!

Thank you for following my message!

reply to post by Hefficide


P.S.

It was myself I called half-brained, not you.

reply to post by catwhoknowsplusone


I did not mean to come across as sour, and referred to myself as "half brained" as well, in an effort to lighten things up (apparently not very effectively). To note, also, I never called you stupid.

But I do apologize if my words came across negatively. Such was not my intention.

~Heff

No prob, I like to help. Especially on matters of maintaining security, too many people use unsecure computer habits like using their admin/root account. Those 9 steps are fairly decent steps to abide by just to reduce the effectiveness of all types of malware. I had edited my original post to include some speculation on about how it could have gone down as well. I edited rather than posted, as I did not want to double post.

reply to post by spikey


Spikey,

I have to repeat this - I put a very forceful email in drafts, and as soon as this had been received my clock was right - this is not a robot, this is a person.

Originally posted by catwhoknowsplusone
reply to post by spikey

 

Spikey,

You are the first person who got it!

When I clicked properties, my draft had been read!

Thank you for following my message!

Ahh...that's because i have an extraordinarily perceptive mind!! (hehheh, only kidding)

I'm wondering now though, that this may be quite a simple error.

When you clicked on the properties of the draft email, you effectively read the file yourself (by interrogating the file properties), so changed the read state flag to 'read'.

Try it again with another draft email, do everything exactly as you did before, except checking the properties.

Make a note of the exact time, then check out the file properties on the new draft email...then check the read state flag in properties and see what time is recorded for when it was 'read'...if the time matches when you first looked at the properties, mystery is solved...you reading the properties, set the read flag!

Not sure how this all ties in with the clock changing...may be a separate issue (trojan, worm, etc.) or may even be a motherboard battery starting to fail..if your MB is more than a couple of years old, this may be it...MB batts (button cell) last on average about 3 years.

reply to post by Hefficide


Heff,

I was probably in a bad mood because the first 2 posters treated me like...

And you get tired of that, especially when this is a real issue.

Friends, OK?

Cheers

reply to post by spikey


O-KAY!

Here we go, I am giving up here now.

I looked in my drafts list and saw my draft was answered.

Then my clock was right etc - why can't anyone get this?

You seem to think I am so stupid.

I give up.