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Advice about Hacking / Keystrokes

K

kri

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I know very little about computers , but I believe someone has hacked into my computer , or was told the keystrokes are being recorded. I have followed an earlier post and called up the Activity Monitor. But I don't know what I should be looking for.
Under user name my name appears on some lines and so do the following on other lines;
root
usbmuxd
window server

could someone give me a little advice as to what I should look for?
Not to sound too stupid but can you use simple language 😀
Thanks
 
What makes you think you've been hacked? Having your Mac hacked is an extremely rare occurrence. It's highly unlikely.
 
If you let Activity Monitor let you SHOW ALL PROCESSES, sort by PROCESS NAME and print via CMD+P and SAVE AS PDF and attach it to your next post. If the size of the PDF is too big, compress it via Finder and right clicking on the PDF.

Was that understandable?
 
Hacking

Someone is incredible malicious and a control freak, and has a computer whizz as a friend....could go on but its boring.
Think I have added the attachment of the activity monitor.
thanks🙂
 
blueroom said:
Backup with TimeMachine, reinstall OSX.
Click to expand...
That's really not necessary, and is a rather extreme approach when we haven't even determined if there's reason to believe a hacking occurred. It's more likely something simple, that the OP isn't familiar with.
kri said:
Someone is incredible malicious and a control freak, and has a computer whizz as a friend....could go on but its boring.
Click to expand...
What symptoms have you seen on your system that lead you to believe you've been hacked? Also, most "computer whizzes" aren't.
kri said:
Think I have added the attachment of the activity monitor.
Click to expand...
Where? It's not in the thread.
 
kri said:
Someone is incredible malicious and a control freak, and has a computer whizz as a friend....could go on but its boring.
Think I have added the attachment of the activity monitor.
thanks🙂
Click to expand...

The following talks about images, but the same rules apply for PDFs.
B. Attaching images via the built in Attachment option and uploading an image to forum server

Attach1.png

Attach2.png

Attach3.png

Attach4.png

Attach5.png

​
Click to expand...
 
Hacking

GGJstudios said:
That's really not necessary, and is a rather extreme approach when we haven't even determined if there's reason to believe a hacking occurred. It's more likely something simple, that the OP isn't familiar with.

What symptoms have you seen on your system that lead you to believe you've been hacked? Also, most "computer whizzes" aren't.

Where? It's not in the thread.
Click to expand...

Its not what I've seen its the information that someone else has, which they wouldn't know about unless they had access to passwords.
 
kri said:
Its not what I've seen its the information that someone else has, which they wouldn't know about unless they had access to passwords.
Click to expand...
People can get information by hacking your email or social networking accounts, which don't involve your computer at all. This is far more likely the case. Change your passwords and make sure they are complex enough that they're difficult to guess. The only way they can access your computer is if you let them.

I don't see anything suspicious on your Activity Monitor listing. However, I do recommend you uninstall Sophos AntiVirus. You don't need antivirus software to protect your Mac, and if you choose to run one anyway, choose something other than Sophos, as it can actually increase your Mac's vulnerability. ClamXav is a better alternative, if you insist on running antivirus. There has never been a virus in the wild that affects Mac OS X since it was released 10 years ago. The handful of trojans that exist can be easily avoided with some education and common sense and care in what software you install:
 
That is what they have done, accessed email and f**ebook accounts. But also other sides which they didn't know i was involved in? I am not being paranoid its just that I constantly live with this fear that what I do isn't secure. No one has physical access to my computer anymore, but I just wanted to rule out that my computer hadn't previously been interfered with. I guess to contradict my self it is a little paranoid. But I would just like to rule it out. I asked in the apple store if they could check it and they said it was extremely hard to find out!
 
kri said:
That is what they have done, accessed email and f**ebook accounts. But also other sides which they didn't know i was involved in? I am not being paranoid its just that I constantly live with this fear that what I do isn't secure. No one has physical access to my computer anymore, but I just wanted to rule out that my computer hadn't previously been interfered with. I guess to contradict my self it is a little paranoid. But I would just like to rule it out. I asked in the apple store if they could check it and they said it was extremely hard to find out!
Click to expand...
You haven't been hacked. Period. It's quite common for someone to hack an email account, then use that account to gain access to all the sites where you registered, using that email address. That process doesn't depend on your computer at all. It wouldn't matter if you had a Mac or Windows PC or no computer at all. It's all done via email and web access. Like I said before, change all your passwords and make them tough and you'll be fine.
 
kri said:
Its not what I've seen its the information that someone else has, which they wouldn't know about unless they had access to passwords.
Click to expand...

Do you use a wireless network to access the internet?

If yes, is it secured using WPA2 with a strong password?

If no, can these shady individuals access the wireless network? Whether that be because they live close enough to you or from a car parked on the street.

If they can access your network, your problem will not go away until you secure your wireless network. What is happening to you can be done using a packet sniffer. Making sure that you use an encrypted connection to websites with logins, such as Facebook, will also help mitigate the problem.

Check out the links in my sig for more detailed information.
 
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