Am i being paranoid or what?

[gusious]

Alright, i know i'm a bit paranoid, probably because i've been thinking about it for a while. Anyway, let me explain my story.

Once i was browsing on the internet and found a funny blog. There was a tab there that wrote "Chat" and i was curious so i said what the heck. I joined and i saw it wasn't one of these regular "writing" chats, it had video also. Now, although i didn't see my camera light turning green (mbp), i put my hand in front of the camera, just in case. Then i heard the people there saying "hey, who's this guy, we can't see him, is he blocking the camera?". About 10 secs after i was kicked. Now, at that point i pretty much freaked out. Because a) where they talking about me? Cause i didn't give anyone access to my camera, b) how the heck did they manage to turn on the camera without the light? (although it may have been that i couldn't see it because of my hand).

Anyways, i was freaked out as i said for a while but i tried to calm myself down. That was at least 8 months ago, probably more.

Today, this happened. I was watching a youtube video and i paused it. Went to get a glass of water and while i was getting back, the video started playing. What the heck was that?

Now, i'm pretty much freaked out cause i don't know whether someone is logged in somehow in my computer or just installed some kind of keylogger/spyware/whatever.

Am i being paranoid? Cause i don't have sufficient knowledge to explain those things, that's why i'm posting here.


Here are my processes from Activity Monitor if you can find anything suspicious (running ClamXav for the first time just in case)
http://cl.ly/JfsU
http://cl.ly/Jh7X
http://cl.ly/JhMU
http://cl.ly/JgML

 

[arjen92]

I would say you're overreacting. If your camera is not turned on it's not weird those people are saying "hey, is his camera off". If your camera was on you probably did it yourself by clicking on the chatbox and giving it permission. Perhaps it needed time to start.

About the youtube. There's only a small chance it's related. There are so many other possibilities why it suddenly started. Like a bug in youtube, it finished buffering and started, perhaps something dropped on your keyboard.

Ask yourself this, why would someone hack your computer during a chat, to not do anything for 8 months (why would that person wait?), and then to start your youtube video?

I don't know, but I haven't heard of the terrifying hackers group "youtube no-pause".

 

[SteppingStone]

It seems likely that they couldn't see you because your camera was indeed turned off. I agree the YouTube thing does not sound related.

IMO a little paranoia is a good thing FWIW.

 

[ClearCoat]

Paranoid or not, there's some ways you can put your mind at ease. These are not crappy, spyware-laden shareware - they're great, well-respected pieces of software for exactly the situation you're in. Both of these are actually premium-based software....meaning you need to pay for them eventually....but they both have trial periods, so you can at least try them out, and scan your computer to make sure you aren't getting spied on or logged:

Little Snitch:
http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

...This is a network monitor - it'll basically show you exactly what programs are sending info out via the internet from your computer.


MacScan:
http://macscan.securemac.com/

...a Spyware scanner. Their website looks kinda spammy, which is a shame, because they're actually well-regarded.


However, there's a few tips for you moving forward to prevent problems down the road:

- Be careful before ever clicking "yes" or "allow" if it pops up as an alert on your browser - especially if on an unfamiliar site. You may be granting access to your computer.

- Always research the reputation of any software you download online - if you aren't reading about it on some insanely reputable site like Gizmodo or Lifehacker, then do your own research first. This especially means stuff you find on forums...like this one, and the recommendations I gave you. I told you they're great, but why take my word for it? Just a 5-minute Google search will tell you if there's any red flags.

Hope this helps just a bit in giving you peace of mind. Run those two programs, and you'll be able to know definitively if you actually need to worry anymore!

 

[gusious]

Thanks for your replies guys, you're probably right.

@ClearCoat: I've been using Little Snitch for quite some time now and it's wonderful at what it does.