I've been hacked! Help.

[Fireslayer]

Hi all.

Well I guess I'm a bonehead for not taking the proper steps to secure my mac. I'm a trusting soul and didn't think that it could happen to me.
Turns out that my fire wall was not even turned on. Now, I need to know what steps to take to protect myself. I'm not opposed to sitting down with an expert and paying for serious assistance. In the mean time, I'll look for help here.

1) My fire wall now says "Only essential services". Does that mean that it is ON now?

2) I know who did it,,, but how? Did he sit in front of my house and gain access the first time that way? I mean, HOW in the world can he be at his house and say "I want to get so and so, and then do it"?

3) I know that my system puts off a 'number'. I believe that it is the ISP. What gives off the number, the router or my computer?

4) By changing my router (and moving to another state) would that keep my dear friend from being able to pick my out of a crowd and targeting my specific machine?

5) What steps do I need to lock him out?

6) What can I turn off at night (when he is up to no good) to prevent him from gaining access? Computer,,, Router,,, or the cable connection?

7)NOW the big question. How do I prove to a judge that he was in my computer. Does a hacker leave a trail? This is a federal offence and he is attempting to commit extortion. This is kind of a big deal and I want to press charges.

I'm at the point where I don't even know where to turn. I know that there are people in law enforcement that track down and prosecute these types of crimes, but I'm guessing that I'm not a big deal to them and he will go unpunished.

I could really use some help.

Thanks in advance!

 

[miles01110]

It is quite obvious you do not know what you are talking about. For starters, you have presented no evidence that indicates someone has "hacked" you. If someone got into your machine you probably left it logged in without a password on it. If you did have a password, it was probably not a good one.

If someone got into an e-mail account they don't need access to your computer at all; they probably knew your username and guessed your password and/or answered your security questions (which they either knew or looked up) to get access.

3) I know that my system puts off a 'number'. I believe that it is the ISP. What gives off the number, the router or my computer?

What you're probably referring to is your Internet Protocol (IP) address. This is assigned to you by your ISP. You might have a router that separates your public (ISP-assigned) IP from your private IP address in your local area network, but this is not relevant.

4) By changing my router (and moving to another state) would that keep my dear friend from being able to pick my out of a crowd and targeting my specific machine?

Probably not.

5) What steps do I need to lock him out?

Depends on if they actually got in.

6) What can I turn off at night (when he is up to no good) to prevent him from gaining access? Computer,,, Router,,, or the cable connection?

Don't connect to the internet and you'll be very safe if the intruder doesn't have physical access.

7)NOW the big question. How do I prove to a judge that he was in my computer. Does a hacker leave a trail? This is a federal offence and he is attempting to commit extortion. This is kind of a big deal and I want to press charges.

Then talk to the police, not an anonymous internet forum.

 

[Fireslayer]

It is quite obvious you do not know what you are talking about. For starters, you have presented no evidence that indicates someone has "hacked" you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well I'm not really sure if I should say thank you or not. I didn't really feel that I needed to share what I found that tells me that I was hacked. There are certain elements of this crime that should not be posted.
Is it possible that I was hacked just because I didn't give you every detail?
There was information used to commit extortion that could ONLY be obtained from my computer. That is really all that you need to know.

I am asking for help and I felt that this was a good place to start,,, I'm sorry that you don't feel that a forum is the place to ask questions. I'm in a serious pickle and I thought that there would be people here that could offer assistance. I really don't think that I'm wrong. I just think that you were the wrong person to ask.

If you don't want to help me, then don't. But don't bag on me,,, Please.

And you are right,,, I don't know what I am talking about. But I am pretty sure that I came to the right place to find out.

(PS) They did not gain the information from my email account. It was information in a file on my computer. At this point I am not sure if my email was hacked, and I don't know what personal information was obtained. ie. banking information etc.
But I do know for a fact that my computer was hacked. You have to trust me on this one.

 

[miles01110]

Well I'm not really sure if I should say thank you or not.

You should not.

I didn't really feel that I needed to share what I found that tells me that I was hacked. There are certain elements of this crime that should not be posted.

I didn't ask you to post details. However, it is highly doubtful you got hacked other than having weak passwords or weak physical security that would otherwise prevent direct, physical access to your machine.

Is it possible that I was hacked just because I didn't give you every detail?

Yes, it is possible, but like I said - unlikely.

There was information used to commit extortion that could ONLY be obtained from my computer. That is really all that you need to know

Sorry, but I don't really believe you. Local data is a rarity these days.

I am asking for help and I felt that this was a good place to start

Incorrect. If you feel you are the victim of a crime, you need to talk to law enforcement.

I'm sorry that you don't feel that a forum is the place to ask questions.

I'm equally, if not more sorry that you think an internet forum is the first place to go when you are the victim of a crime.

I'm in a serious pickle and I thought that there would be people here that could offer assistance.

How will they be able to offer more assistance than the police?

And you are right,,, I don't know what I am talking about. But I am pretty sure that I came to the right place to find out.

Incorrect. The police or your lawyer is the correct way to go about pursuing legal action against someone.

 

[yg17]

IF, and that's a big if, you were really hacked, and you want our help in making sure it never happens again, knowing what makes you think you did get hacked and how he get in is sort of an important detail.

Hollywood has given people a false impression of what hacking is. It's not Halle Berry and John Travolta cracking CIA encryption in 10 seconds or anything that sophisticated (god what an awful movie, at least Halle Berry's tits made it worth it, somewhat), or Jeff Goldblum uploading a virus to an alien mothership orbiting the earth. If you were really "hacked" it was probably because you chose an easy to guess password for one of your online accounts.

 

[cantthinkofone]

Lots of text

Halle Berry's Tits

These two have given you good points. Hacking a person's computer or network is not a few seconds of work. It could take weeks or months to collect enough data to gain access.

If you feel that you have been hacked contact local law enforcement. Don't get on a forum and ask for help.

 

[miles01110]

7)NOW the big question. How do I prove to a judge that he was in my computer. Does a hacker leave a trail? This is a federal offence and he is attempting to commit extortion. This is kind of a big deal and I want to press charges.

In addition, this question is particularly vexing. If you are in the United States and are not a data forensics professional (a fair assumption, in my opinion) the absolute worst thing you can do is go bumbling around your data looking for clues. This could be considered tampering with evidence, subsequently calling its validity into question or disallowing it from being used against your "hacker" in court.

Again, if you are serious about pressing charges against someone, you need to stop doing everything on the computer you believe to be compromised and consult with law enforcement and/or legal representation. I don't particularly care if you were hacked or not; but the way you are going about "solving" your problem is not going to get you anywhere (except possible hacked or extorted again).

 

[Fireslayer]

IF, and that's a big if, you were really hacked, and you want our help in making sure it never happens again, knowing what makes you think you did get hacked and how he get in is sort of an important detail.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have spoken to my lawyer, and the police. This is the inception of the case and I have not been able to speak to a forensic officer yet.

I will NOT give details of the information on a forum. If you don't believe me, that is fine. I'm not asking you to believe me, I'm asking for help to protect myself from future attacks. That is all. Just help me secure my system.

I have bounced what I know off of close friends and they were shocked. It was pretty obvious that I was hacked.

 

[miles01110]

Just help me secure my system.

Turn it off and disconnect the network cable. That's the extent we can help you based on the little useful information you've given.

 

[Fireslayer]

In addition, this question is particularly vexing. If you are in the United States and are not a data forensics professional (a fair assumption, in my opinion) the absolute worst thing you can do is go bumbling around your data looking for clues. This could be considered tampering with evidence, subsequently calling its validity into question or disallowing it from being used against your "hacker" in court.

Again, if you are serious about pressing charges against someone, you need to stop doing everything on the computer you believe to be compromised and consult with law enforcement and/or legal representation. I don't particularly care if you were hacked or not; but the way you are going about "solving" your problem is not going to get you anywhere (except possible hacked or extorted again).

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you. That is the kind of answer that I am looking for.

I have not been poking around because of what you said. I have not removed the item in question for fear of screwing up a good case. Like I said, this is early and I need to know where to go.
I have moved and I don't even know what state this happened in. It is a federal offence because it is hacking, but I'm small potatoes and the FBI will probably turn their backs on me. There is some serious money involved, but I don't know what they consider "enough".

 

[cantthinkofone]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I have spoken to my lawyer, and the police. This is the inception of the case and I have not been able to speak to a forensic officer yet.

I will NOT give details of the information on a forum. If you don't believe me, that is fine. I'm not asking you to believe me, I'm asking for help to protect myself from future attacks. That is all. Just help me secure my system.

I have bounced what I know off of close friends and they were shocked. It was pretty obvious that I was hacked.

Well good luck. Hope things work out for you.

 

[paolo-]

First of all, are you sure it's your computer that's been hacked, your connection or a web service that you use. If any of these are compromised, the hacker has access to some of your stuff. But I think hackers are less and less able to gain full control of your computer just by you being on the Internet. Mind you, getting access to your WiFi connection can be fairly easy and once in, the hacker can see the traffic going and if you're not on a secure connection with a website (https:\\) then he can basically see everything you're doing online and just grab the data. As for web services there are many way the hacker might get access to your stuff, getting the passwords is easy if you have physical access to the computer or as I was telling you if he got into the WiFi network or various other schemes.

Bottom line, I understand that you don't want to give out specifics but I think you're better off asking a professional who'll go into all the gritty details with you. For now, since we have no clue where you are compromised, you're better off staying offline. Even if you're using another computer on a completely different connection it doesn't matter if he's into something you're doing on a web service.

 

[iBreatheApple]

I don't understand why when someone who clearly doesn't know what they are talking about and needs help, everyone has to be completely rude and asinine.

 

[munkery]

Turns out that my fire wall was not even turned on.

Starting with Mac OS X Leopard, the TrustedBSD MAC framework has been included to provide a firewall by default.

A firewall was turned on despite the firewall found in the System Preferences not being turned on.

So, the attacker would be unable to get remote access to your system unless you had a sharing service turned on and exposed without a secure password.

The only other possibility is that you have not been doing regular system updates such that known vulnerabilities were present on your system, but this is unlikely to be the cause unless the attacker has the skill set to exploit those vulnerabilities present in whatever unpatched version of OS X that you are using.

1) My fire wall now says "Only essential services". Does that mean that it is ON now?

This is overly restrictive. Allow selected services through the firewall as well or you may encounter issues.

2) I know who did it,,, but how? Did he sit in front of my house and gain access the first time that way? I mean, HOW in the world can he be at his house and say "I want to get so and so, and then do it"?

What lead you to believe that he accessed your system?

It is possible that he only gained access to your wireless network and then was able to sniff your traffic on the network without actually having accessed your computer.

3) I know that my system puts off a 'number'. I believe that it is the ISP. What gives off the number, the router or my computer?

Your external IP address is usually given off by the router.

4) By changing my router (and moving to another state) would that keep my dear friend from being able to pick my out of a crowd and targeting my specific machine?

What is happening?

I suspect that you have a weak wireless security configuration. Stronger wireless security will most likely fix your issue.

5) What steps do I need to lock him out?

Depends on the issue.

6) What can I turn off at night (when he is up to no good) to prevent him from gaining access? Computer,,, Router,,, or the cable connection?

What specifically is happening? Have emails been tampered? What kind of data has been accessed?

I do not need to know the content of the files but only the file types (docs, pics, emails, etc).

Whether or not this data has been sent over the network is also important. Any data that is sent unencrypted can be collected by the attacker if he had access to your network despite not having access to your computer.

7)NOW the big question. How do I prove to a judge that he was in my computer. Does a hacker leave a trail? This is a federal offence and he is attempting to commit extortion. This is kind of a big deal and I want to press charges.

This depends on exactly what the attacker was doing.

If he isn't aware that you are onto to him, then you can set up monitoring software to detect him while he accesses your network and/or system.

In the meantime, read the "Mac Security Suggestions" link in my sig.

 

[munkery]

I forgot to mention that one of the most used techniques by these types of criminals is trespassing on the target's property to get physical access to the computer to collect information.

 

[mrsir2009]

What is it that you think got hacked? An email account? An online banking account? You say that its obvious you got hacked, but what exactly do you think that hacker has been into?

 

[(marc)]

I forgot to mention that one of the most used techniques by these types of criminals is trespassing on the target's property to get physical access to the computer to collect information.

This. Your computer doesn't get hacked unless you're a very important person, which the OP is clearly not.

 

[rdowns]

This thread is comedy gold. Thanks, OP.

 

[chrfr]

I don't understand why when someone who clearly doesn't know what they are talking about and needs help, everyone has to be completely rude and asinine.

This is because the OP has come here and asked a question that demands additional information to be answered, yet has provided none.