Hi, I accidentally left my router unsecured for a couple of hours.

I also left my laptop on during this time,
connected wirelessly to the unsecured router.

My question is, can a hacker in my apartment complex
who really wants to, connect to this router and
hack into my laptop's hard drive and steal/transfer files?

I have not shared any folders.
I am wondering if they can hack through Vista file sharing,
to access folders that aren't even shared.

If so, how long would it take them to hack in if they wanted to?

(I have since secured my router after leaving it open for two hours,
but am asking this question for peace of mind. :sick

Thank you for your help, it is much appreciated!


--
john ha

Anything's possible, and while sharing folders would make it easier, it's
certainly not the only attack vector.

If Windows Firewall was turned on at the time, and is in "Public" mode, or
in any mode with no Exceptions enabled, your computer is as safe as it would
be if you were using public Wi-Fi (which you were, however unintentionally).
Which is to say, reasonably safe. If UAC was turned on, you'd have an
additional layer of protection against remote malware installation. Likewise
antivirus/antispyware. And as security conscious as you sound, you probably
have all of the above.

It's not really possible to answer your question, even if we knew enough
about your computer config, which we don't. Any computer is hackable. But if
you had Windows Firewall, AV/AS, and UAC, in addition to the many layers of
OS hardening in Vista, and the bad guys only had a couple hours' window of
opportunity, there are probably a *lot* easier targets in your apartment
building than your computer. And the bad guys are lazy.

If you're still concerned, restore from a backup made before the router was
open. Or, less Draconian, do a System Restore to before that time; you won't
lose any data that way.

--
Jeff Vandervoort
JRVsystems
http://www.jrvsystems.com

"john ha" wrote in message
...

Hi, I accidentally left my router unsecured for a couple of hours.

I also left my laptop on during this time,
connected wirelessly to the unsecured router.

My question is, can a hacker in my apartment complex
who really wants to, connect to this router and
hack into my laptop's hard drive and steal/transfer files?

I have not shared any folders.
I am wondering if they can hack through Vista file sharing,
to access folders that aren't even shared.

If so, how long would it take them to hack in if they wanted to?

(I have since secured my router after leaving it open for two hours,
but am asking this question for peace of mind. :sick

Thank you for your help, it is much appreciated!


--
john ha

Hi
If a Wireless connection is unsecured any one can log on on to it.
However if No folders are shared, then the "leecher" would not even see you
computer.
Hacking under this condition is not simple and can take very long time,
unless someone knows in specific that your computer is there, and they are
looking for something specific that they know should be there, it is
unlikely that by pure coincidence your system would be compromised.
Jack (MS, MVP-Networking).


"Jeff Vandervoort" jeffv at jrvsystems dot com wrote in message
...
Anything's possible, and while sharing folders would make it easier, it's
certainly not the only attack vector.

If Windows Firewall was turned on at the time, and is in "Public" mode, or
in any mode with no Exceptions enabled, your computer is as safe as it
would be if you were using public Wi-Fi (which you were, however
unintentionally). Which is to say, reasonably safe. If UAC was turned on,
you'd have an additional layer of protection against remote malware
installation. Likewise antivirus/antispyware. And as security conscious as
you sound, you probably have all of the above.

It's not really possible to answer your question, even if we knew enough
about your computer config, which we don't. Any computer is hackable. But
if you had Windows Firewall, AV/AS, and UAC, in addition to the many
layers of OS hardening in Vista, and the bad guys only had a couple hours'
window of opportunity, there are probably a *lot* easier targets in your
apartment building than your computer. And the bad guys are lazy.

If you're still concerned, restore from a backup made before the router
was open. Or, less Draconian, do a System Restore to before that time; you
won't lose any data that way.

--
Jeff Vandervoort
JRVsystems
http://www.jrvsystems.com

"john ha" wrote in message
...

Hi, I accidentally left my router unsecured for a couple of hours.

I also left my laptop on during this time,
connected wirelessly to the unsecured router.

My question is, can a hacker in my apartment complex
who really wants to, connect to this router and
hack into my laptop's hard drive and steal/transfer files?

I have not shared any folders.
I am wondering if they can hack through Vista file sharing,
to access folders that aren't even shared.

If so, how long would it take them to hack in if they wanted to?

(I have since secured my router after leaving it open for two hours,
but am asking this question for peace of mind. :sick

Thank you for your help, it is much appreciated!


--
john ha