I’ve been hacked! What should I do?

I’ve been hacked! What should I do?

Overview

Most of your devices are protected with passwords, secret questions and some form of physical security. However, thousands of people are hacked everyday. Chances are you or someone you know has been hacked at one point or another. No matter how diligent you are about security, you may eventually become a target. In this article you will learn how to tell if your device may have been hacked and how to respond. The faster your able to detect the signs and respond accordingly, the better you can minimize the damage.

Signs that you have been hacked

Hackers attempt to gather information from your computer or device without your knowledge. Therefore, it can be hard to determine if you are being hacked without knowing what to look for. Hackers often trigger certain events or leave indicators along the way that can help you detect the hack and take action right away. Use the following list of indicators as a guide:

·      Your browser homepage has been changed to another site

·      Applications on your device are crashing or restarting

·      You have new applications appearing on your device

·      The Anti virus program on your device alerts that it has been disabled

·      Programs or popups start asking for your username/password

·      Your password no longer works when you try to log into your device

·      Friends ask why you are sending them SPAM

·      Your device powers down by itself

How to respond

If you believe the device your using has been compromised or hacked, take action right away. If the device belongs to your employer, notify your management or the IT department. Trying to resolve the issue yourself can sometimes lead to more harm than good. In a business environment it is important to determine what information was compromised and, in some cases, evidence on the device may be gathered for legal action. If for any reason you’re not able to quickly get the assistance that you need, unplug the device from the network but leave the device running. In some cases, hackers will damage operating system files, disabling the device from being able to boot up again.   

If you are working on your own personal device, here are a few steps that you can take:

·      Disable the wireless connection on the device and unplug it from the network

·      Change your passwords right away. If possible, change your passwords from another computer in case the hacker is recording keystrokes on the infected device.

·      Make sure the Anti Virus software on your device is running. If any infected files have been detected, try using the Anti Virus software to clean them.

·      Install a program like Malwarebytes and scan the complete system for malware. You might need to download the program from another computer and install it with a thumb drive or CD.

·      Restore the device from a backup. DATA LOSS! This option will likely result in some data loss.

·      Restore the device with the factory recovery image. DATA LOSS! This option will result in data loss.

Moving forward

After you have regained control of your device it is important to keep an eye on your social media, instant messaging, email, banking accounts, etc. If the hacker was able to extract information from your device, they will likely try to use it relatively fast.

Take this opportunity to look over your backup process or create a process if you were not backing up your information. Backups don’t need to be complicated and can be done with an inexpensive external hard drive, thumb drive, CDs, etc. Microsoft operating system have a backup and restore application built in and Apple computers use a backup and restore system called Time Machine. Apple and Droid phones and tablets can be backed up to the cloud or a workstation/laptop. 

Getting assistance

If you need help recovering your device or protecting it from future issues, please contact us at https://jbtechconsulting.com