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How Can Buying a Used Computer Be Risky?
Can A Computer Virus Removal Service Help Me?
October 11, 2015
Do I Really Need Computer Repair Virus Removal?
October 11, 2015
Buying a used computer can often save you money. However, it can also have hidden dangers.
The victim is 43 years old female, small business owner. While not a computer expert, she has been using computers for 25+ years. Here’s her story about buying a used computer from a popular retailer:
- She purchased a used computer that “was in perfect shape” for $400.
- The computer was an Acer 7550 Aspire Laptop running Windows 7 Home Premium. New would’ve been $900+.
- After 2-3 weeks, “I notice my passwords are changing.”
- She offered that “I change my passwords often and use large strings of Alpha/Numeric and Symbolic characters. I figured I had just typed them in wrong or written them down wrong and would just change them either back to what I thought they where or created new ones.”
- Weeks later, “I have discovered that the prior owner still has control of my Root and remained Owner/Creator on this machine and has installed a variety of ports and fraudulent certificates as well as literally hundreds of registry modification allowing him to access this machine remotely.”
- Her chosen action was, “My only solution was to re-format and re-install.”
- Why did she choose this action? “Virus scans, which I had run many times and used several would not have made a bit of difference in my case.” (More on this below)
- Her estimated total time to resolve this issue? “Something like 70 hours all told”
Not being a computer expert, her chosen action was a wise course of action. However, it did require a lot of time investment, first to diagnose the extent of the problem, then to format, reinstall, and re-setup programs and settings, which many people simply don’t have the time to commit to such a lengthy project.
Why Wouldn’t a Virus Scan Help Her?
Simply because she didn’t have a virus. While the person that made the changes obviously had ill-intent, nonetheless, the setting changes that were made are considered normal by any anti-virus software as you are allowed to make changes to your computer system settings.
Many malware and virus programmers know how to appear to both the user and the computer as a normal activity so as to not alert the user or anti-virus software.
This is one reason why our Rock Star Technicians look through your system settings to find viruses that can’t be found by traditional anti-virus software scans.
How Could The Victim Have Saved A Lot of Time and Headache?
While working with the victim, a Rock Star Technician would:
- Change her Windows login password
- Remove other User logins she doesn’t recognize
- Reset the ports back to default
- Removed the fraudulent certificates
- Remove any remote connection software (Rock Star Technicians use proprietary remote connection software, so we’ll stay connected even after removing other remote connection software)
- Disabled Windows Remote Assistance
- Perform a rootkit scan
Without the ability for the hacker to no longer have any remote connection, we would then move to the next level.
- Review registry and make recommendations
- Etc.
When buying a used computer, the steps above are recommend to perform to safe guard your confidential information.
A Note About Forensic Investigation
The victim in this story may have chosen to prosecute the retailer. If you choose to seek prosecution of virus writer, it’s imperative that NO changes be performed on the computer without first consulting legal council.
A forensic investigator will often create two full system backups.
- Backup one is for a forensic investigators “Reference” copy that is never used.
- Backup two is for a forensic investigators to use and create a report of any evidence.
Even if there is not a desire to prosecute, you may wish to keep a backup reference copy in the event you discover lost funds, lost identity, etc. and choose to prosecute at a later time. Please note, these backups are full system, bootable backups, not simply a backup of documents.
Buying a Used Computer, Is It “Virus” Free?
The victim didn’t have a virus that virus scans would find. However, the intent of the retailer was to spy on the user without her knowing. The retailer can watch video camera, copy pictures, Word files, emails, etc. Consider that the retailer could purposefully give the victim a virus in hopes she would call the retailer for a repair.
Rock Star Technicians take delight in fixing problems as quickly as possible. The total time to resolve this victims virus problem would’ve been about two hours. Two hours versus 70 hours, it’s your choice.
So what does your used computer from Amazon or Ebay or a Retailer or a local computer shop have on it? Even with a virus scan, your computer settings can be altered in a way to allow someone to watch you and control your computer.
Considering it’s a flat rate to fix, it’s time to contact Rock Star Virus Removal today and get virus free!
Original appears here: http://www.makeuseof.com/answers/how-do-i-stop-someone-who-has-control-of-my-desktop-remotely/
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