Hello,

I`m a Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit user, and the other day, I
connected to an unprotected wireless connection (bad idea... I know...)
and had about 20 gigs of files deleted from my hard drive. I was only
connected for about an hour at most, and I set the network to public, so
nobody should have been able to access my files, let alone delte 20 gigs
of data. All together, about ten folders were deleted directly off of my
C drive. I was able to recover most of my data using recovery software,
and I didn`t lose anything important, so that was a miracle, but I`m
worried that the hacker might have stolen personal information from me.
Has anybody ever heard of a similar case to this? I had my firewall on,
and the network was set as public, so whoever hacked in must have been
pretty skillful. I searched google for similar cases, but I couldn`t
find any information at all.
Also, is it possible that it could have been a virus and not a hacker?
I only checked my email while I was online, so I double I could have
been infected.
Later I did find a trojan in my virtual PC`s virtual disk, but I don`t
think it was even running at the time, and even if it was, could a virus
running inside virtual PC, delete data off my actual hard drive?
If this was a hacker, which I`m pretty sure it was, could they steal
data off my hard drive? The folders they deleted were all folders that I
made, and nothing was deleted out of the Windows, Program files, Program
data, or User folders. So I`m imagining that they couldn`t get access to
those folders, but if they could, then they could have stolen important
work documents from me, which has me really worried.

It`s my first time posting here, but I view these forums a lot, and I
know there`s a lot of people that are really helpful and knowledgeble
here. So any help on this topic would be greatly appreciated!!

-yoshimitsu


--
yoshimitsuhiro

Sorry to hear about your lost data.

I don't believe that someone can simply connect to your PC, gain
administrator access, and then transfer and/or delete data. I've heard
of situations where a trojan had infected a computer and gained access,
but simply sitting on a public network (absent of some type of exploit)
shouldn't automatically grant access to your system.


--
.Joe

_[image:
http://uswave.net/vistax64/joetmvx64.png] (\"http://uswave.net/vistax64/joetmvx64.png\")_
_*::Vista_Forums::* (\"http://www.vistax64.com/\")_
'Geekbench Sco 4031'
(http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/51273)
_CPU-Z (\"http://valid.x86-secret.com/show_oc.php?id=345866\")_

Thanks Joe,

I`ll look into things somemore and check if there was (or still is) a
trojan somewhere in my system, and post again if I find any information.

-yoshimitsu


--
yoshimitsuhiro

I scanned my computer yesterday, and found a trojan in my Java temp
folder. Don`t know how it got there, but there`s a good chance that was
the culprit.:huh:
There was also the trojan I mentioned above in my Virtual PC`s virtual
drive, but I doubt that could have infected my physical hard drive
(plus, I`m pretty sure it was just a false alarm).
I guess all I can do is hope that whoever or whatever hacked my
computer just deleted files and didn`t steal anything. I`ll have to be
more careful from now on.
Thanks for the information.

-yoshimitsu


--
yoshimitsuhiro

im not 100% sure, but you may be able to get the data recovered. if it
was a hacker, im not sure if they could delete an item without using
windows standard deletion. which as everyone knows, 98 to 99 percent of
it you can get bak

you never know, you may get it all bak. i heard of a great bit of
software called "search and recover 4" it may be worth lookiing up on
the net.

hope i have helped in some way......


--
scousa4lyf

Thanks Scousa4lyf,
I was able to recover most of my files with the program, Recover My
Files, and I didn`t lose anything important, so that was a relief.
I`m just a little worried that somebody might have stolen personal data
from me. I`d also just like to know how somebody hacked into my computer
if they did, or if this was just a virus or what, so that I can prevent
it from happening in the future.
Thanks for the advice!

-yoshimitsu


--
yoshimitsuhiro

hey just wondering... are u using your "UAC" ..i mean it is on? (the popup
window that keeps asking about what u are about to do) If so ... you are
probaly sharing more files with out you knowing....... Find your shares
...shut'em off..turn UAC on and turn on password sharing on.... 3 basics steps
to prevent deletting and running executables remotely.... then on top of that
a GOOD firewall other than the build in one!
good luck!
--
Big Bone has The Black Plague.


"yoshimitsuhiro" wrote:


Thanks Scousa4lyf,
I was able to recover most of my files with the program, Recover My
Files, and I didn`t lose anything important, so that was a relief.
I`m just a little worried that somebody might have stolen personal data
from me. I`d also just like to know how somebody hacked into my computer
if they did, or if this was just a virus or what, so that I can prevent
it from happening in the future.
Thanks for the advice!

-yoshimitsu


--
yoshimitsuhiro

i could have been some one sitting next to you that done it, im not sure
where you live but in the UK, there was a programme on TV called "the
real hustle". i seen the guy phisically disconnect the other computer
from the network that it was connected to, and then he made a virtual
network connection, which used the real network's internet. he then got
the member of public to un knowingly connect to the virtual network and
he was watching every move they made (this was in an internet Cafe) he
even got a copy of travel tickets that the member of the public had
bought 10 seconds previous...

i would definatley recommend a better firewall, just as Big Bone said..
windows firewall protects you again certain threats but many still
remain unguarded

no prblems, i will help when i can. can i just ask that you add it to
my reputation (top right of this message) thanks....


--
scousa4lyf

It looks this forum automaticly logs you out if you take too long to
post a message... so I just lost everything I wrote... Oh
well, I`ll write again.

Thanks everybody for the advice, and sorry for the late reply. I was
away this weekend and couldn`t use the Internet.
Big Bone mentioned UAC, and yeah I did have UAC enabled. I also had the
Windows Firewall enabled and set the network as a public network (where
it`s not supposed to share any files at all, I believe). I did have some
folders set as shared for my home network, but even folders that weren`t
shared at all got deleted too. So, I have no idea how somebody hacked
in, if they did.
The possibility of a virus is still there too, but I checked all my
autoruns (programs and services), and I didn`t see anything strange. I
did find that trojan when I did a Norton scan last week, but I don`t
know if that was connected or not. My computers been kinda slow since
the incident, but that could be for a number of reasons. I`ve had the
computer for 1 -1/2 years now, and haven`t reformated once yet, so maybe
it`s time to just start over from scratch.
I`m kinda scared to connect to the internet with that machine now
though, cause I`m afraid there`s some sort of security hole and I`m
gonna get attacked again. Like I said above, there aren`t any mysterious
proccesses running, and everything looks fine, but with has been running
slower since the attack, so I`m a little worried... I think I`ll try
looking into a better firewall like Big Bone and scousa4lyf mentioned,
just to shield myself in the future.
Once again, thanks everyone.

-yoshimitsu


--
yoshimitsuhiro

Well, yesterday I think I finally discovered what deleted my
data.arty:
About a month ago, I downloaded a demo version of some software off the
Internet, and installed it onto my hard drive. Then, last week, right
about the same time that I lost my data, I uninstalled that program. I
didn`t link the 2 together at first, but yesterday, I ran the
uninstaller for that demo program again (because I thought there were
still traces of it left on my system), and right after I ran the
uninstaller, the exact same files that got deleted last week,
dissappeared again.:shock:
Then I copied the uninstaller into a virtual machine, and tested it
out, and it deleted a few folders off of the virtual drive as well. I
have no idea how it chooses which files to delete, but it appears to
work on some sort of a algorithm, cause it deleted the exact same files
off my hard drive twice. However, it can`t be too specific, because it
deleted a different set of files when I ran it on my virtual pc.
Weird...:huh:
Norton didn`t detect the file as a virus, so my guess is that there was
some sort of bug in the uninstaller that makes it delete the wrong
files, but who knows. Could have just been a fake file uploaded onto the
Internet to destroy the lives of all who download it!!:sa:
Anyways, I won`t be messing around with that demo again.
Thanks to everybody that helped me here. It sucks that I lost my data,
but at least I know it wasn`t a hacker now, and I found the source of
the problem, so it shouldn`t happen again.

-yoshimitsu


--
yoshimitsuhiro