by C S

Created on: March 13, 2010

The internet is not actually a very safe place. While you are connecting to the internet it has its risks for your computer's security. Whenever you connect to the internet your computer is being open for other users to connect yours. The moment you connect to the internet your computer is open to hackers. The question is 'How do you understand your computer is hacked?'.

There are a couple ways of hacking into a computer which are direct connection hacking, and hacking by viruses. Direct connection hacking generally shows up in very obvious ways. A few ways that it is revealed are when your computer is out of control; like your mouse moves without you moving it or your keyboard types on its own, your computer options change on their own, your internet connection slows down, and so on. One of the certain ways to understand if somebody is connecting to your computer without your permission is this;

Click Start -> Run and type cmd there. Now, you are going to see a little black screen on your monitor. This screen is your Command Window. Type there netstat -an. There might be many results of this code, but do not worry about it. The lines which we are going to look at are LISTENING ports.All of your listening ports' alien IPs must be 0.0.0.0:0, otherwise there it is somebody connecting to your computer without your permission. For you to get more information on what netstat command is doing, type netstat /? to your black command window, and later on analyse which exe or dll the hacker is using to connect to your computer, then clean them with cleaning tools. This type of hacking is very obvious, it is almost impossible for you to not understand that your computer is being controlled remotely, of course, if the hacker is not an extreme professional. For you to protect yourself from remote control, right click on My Computer -> Properties -> Remote, then close all remote permissions.

The second hacking type of computers are viruses. Viruses are created to harm your computer or get information from your computer. Keylogger, Trojan, and many more of them open backdoors to your computer for hackers to have what they want. All of these viruses have different functions. They infect your computer through the internet by downloading files, viewing a web site, and with chat tools, such as messengers. After your computer is infected -this is a type of hack too, then the hacker can have any information he wants if you do not delete or block it at the first step. These viruses open the way for hackers.

You need to have a good firewall to keep your computer safe. What I would advise is COMODO Firewall. It is free and really good one, but it has many options which can annoy you or block your connection to programs or the internet if you are not familiar with the firewalls. If you want an easier one, then I advise you to use Zone Alarm. Another option is to use a paid antivirus package. They have security suite which includes all forms of protection for your computer. Another tip for you is to check your computer task section by pressing CTRL+ALT+DeL. Check all of your working EXEs and check the User Name -who or which part they are used by. I need to say that hackers generally use the common exe names such as svchost.exe or spoolsv.exe to hide themselves. Checking the user name of programs is the way that you can understand what is going on.

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