Have You Been Hacked? - How to Tell If Your Computer's Been Hacked

Being "hacked" simply means an unauthorized person accessing your computer over the internet.

Why do people do hack others computers, you may ask?

A variety of reasons: sport, greed, and just because they can.  If you have any queries regarding the place and how to use whatsapp hack online, you can contact us at our own site.

The people who hack your data are certainly not normal, but are mostly average people - not mad scientist super-geeks on a rampage.

How do you know if you have been hacked?

Depending on what they are up to, the hacker can get in and cause mayhem in a variety of areas.

Anything from:

* files that won't open
* popups that won't disappear
* getting involuntarily redirected to other websites
* deleted files that you didn't delete
* software not booting up

What can you do about it? How can the damage be stopped?

1. The first thing to do is disconnect from the internet if you suspect you are being hacked. The bad guys can't access your data anymore if there is no connection to get to you.

2. Contact your financial institutions and change passwords

Don't do that over the internet, of course - instead, go in and visit or call them on the phone.

After you have done that and things are back to normal, you need to do 2 things to keep this from happening again:

1. Download anti-virus software and setup your Windows firewall

I use Avast, but there are a huge number of excellent anti-virus packages out there. You need to make sure that the virus protection is updated continuously for it to be very much good, whichever you choose.

Also, go to set up your firewall. That is an extra layer of protection.

2. Backup your data

Look into backing up your important data with either an external hard drive or one of the online backup storage services, like Mozy or Carbonite.

By having a backup copy of your data, you make it relatively easy to start over again if this kind of disaster strikes.

Then, vow to install protection so it doesn't happen to you again.

What do hackers do with your information anyway?

Some steal your data, but others just log your browser history and map your keystrokes.

The problem is, if your computer is running very slowly that can be a symptom of a hacker having entered the area, or it could be that your software is corrupt.

One thing you can do is check your Task Manager and see what apps are running - if you don't know about a particular application that could be a hacker's. (check under the "Processes" tab as well - look carefully because the hackers name the files after normal apps/processes, so it is easy to overlook them)

Keep in mind, too, if worse comes to worse, you can just re-format your hard drive and reinstall your system (with patches) - that will always work.

In conclusion, if you suspect you have been or are being hacked, take evasive action quickly and vow to set up an aggressive plan to avoid it happening again.