# How do you know if your computer has been hacked into, someone got our IP addy



## PalesWales09 (Feb 11, 2009)

My son likes to go to all these different websites, some have like message boards, and allow members to chat and e-mail. Apparently he has run into some bad eggs there because he said they were posting that some of the members were finding out other members IP addresses! This is very alarming to us as we used our computer for our business and we cannot afford to have a hacker getting into our files.

Now.. he had some problems with that same site a while back and while I thought he should leave there, he had made alot of friends there and wanted to stay, so he created a whole new profile.
Apparently the hacker on that site _does know what our IP address, as the hacker knew both the different accounts my son had created, and my son had told *no one at all *that he had two profiles on there.

So.. I advised him to report it for abuse, but after he did that many times, still the hacker would start ganging up on him and others started to follow too, and they insisted it was perfectly ok to be checking other members IP addresses!

*Well, today I go to get online and I cannot even get online at all! I get this message, after it connects.. I hear a dial-tone (we are on dial-up) and it says this-

The memberID or password you ahve entered is incorrect. Ensure your password is correct. The memberID format should be text that appear before @myisp.com

Now I have never had a problem with this issue. I know our password backwards & forwards.. and it has never given us this message at all. It was like our own password no longer worked on our computer.

*_ I am freaking out because we saved all our passwords via the tool manager of our browser so we would not have to enter them over & over.

I tried to contact my ISP but they require a credit card and charge you $1.99 per minute!

I sent an email to the administrator of that site, telling them people were breaking the rules there, and checking out other members IP addresses without their permission. They sent back an e-mail saying there was NO WAY that could be happening. Well, if there was NO WAY that could be happening, then how did the hacker know about my sons two different accounts on that site?????? It is not against the rules to have different accounts but hacking certainly is.
But the owners of the site obviously do not want to do anything about it! Now. I wonder just what kind of danger we are in as far our safety and the computer, our privacy and our files.
Our computer is rather old. I do see there is a firewall being posted when we turn on the computer, but I do not think our firewalls are current. Nor do we have any current viruses.. Our operating system is 10.2.8 and is so old, it no longer runs the virus protection everyday like it used to do!
Well, we are on a Mac, but still how do you prevent your IP address being discovered by hacker when you enter a website that insist on your logging in.
My son has gone there alot in recent weeks and we noticed our computer really acting up in the past few weeks.. It will boot itself and go offline only a minute or two after we connect. It never did that before.. and that was after the hackers said they were checking out members IP addresses whom they did not like!
Today was the worst I have ever seen. My son is very upset that the owners of the site are not doing anything and has told the hacker to stop bothering him.
What should we do? This is a real problem nowadays.. is it not? People hacking into others computers. I think it is outrageous a site that claims to be anti-hacking would allow this to continue, but not all websites are created equal.


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## aka Brett (Nov 25, 2008)

ip is easily visable from the back end of most scripts.
the people that run this for instance can see mine what pc i have etc
it is very common.
you can often see a persons ip in the headers of an email
the good news when u have dial up it changes everytime you log in.
mac is gennerally fairly secure be sure you have all your updates.


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## PalesWales09 (Feb 11, 2009)

We do not have all our updates, that is the thing! In fact, none of the security programs we bought even still run.. the system is too old.
Did you read the post thoroughly? And now we only have 10.2.8, I doubt there is even security programs we could BUY at the moment with this 10.2.8 running that would cover our OS!
*How do you hide your IP addresses?* My son does not hardly send e-mails on that site, but I have a question? When he does send e-mail through the site itself, is he opening up our computer to hackers?

I do not know much about the security issues of a computer, but I do know someone having our IP address is *not* a good thing,


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## aka Brett (Nov 25, 2008)

Your ip is what a hacker would like to have more than anything.
Just being online at all creates a certain risk.
The ip still changes with dial up everytime you log into your dial up connection.
Therefore something would have to be installed on your machine for future hackings.
Hacks are also done by holes which can have a system vulnderablility
has apple discontinued support for your os?
To hack a mac is not a common practice for a couple reasons
they are pretty secure to start with and they dont have large share of users.
Apple is pretty good about coming out with a fix when a hole is found.

There have been very few trojans and such created against them.
when one is found apple puts out an update.

if your mac is to old for updates....then you need to upgrade your version as it would no longer be safe for internet usuage this holds true for any os.

a simple way to look for a hacke is to turn off updates close all applications and see if you are using any bandwidth does this several times through the day


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## MacGuyver (Sep 12, 2007)

I sympathize with you. 10.2.8 was a good system and it pained me to upgrade even though 10.3 and 10.4 both have very nice improvements. Before considering upgrading your OS, what hardware do you have? (ie. which Mac model)

Two pieces of software that might help:

#1 - Little Snitch 1.2.4 (Demo?)
This is what brett888 mentioned, but the older version that will work with OS 10.2.8. It should at least allow you to demo the software for a while and try to figure out what might be mucking around and sending info over the network to/from your computer.

http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/legacy.html

#2 - MenuMeters 1.3 (FREE)
I use this on all my personal Mac systems. It lets you add status meters to your menu bar that monitors activity in your CPU, memory, disk, and network (like web browsers). I have mine mostly set to show network activity. I extend the size of my graph so I can see a longer period of time. I also add the arrows that show activity for that moment (like the LED lights on your modem).

When MenuMeters installs, it adds a new panel to the System Preferences window. You can move the meters around to change the orientation by holding the CMD (Apple) key while dragging.

http://www.ragingmenace.com/software/menumeters/index.html

Both tools can help you monitor network activity. Keep in mind that when you are connected to any network, there is often a small pulse every few seconds even when you are not loading anything. This is normal and it tends to have a fairly regular pattern/timing so you can tell it apart from other activity.


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## PalesWales09 (Feb 11, 2009)

Sorry to sound stupid but what does this mean exactly:
" a simple way to look for a hacke is to turn off updates close all applications and see if you are using any bandwidth does this several times through the day"

I am turning off all application, including INTERNET... and where exactly do I look to see where the bandwidth is? And what should it be normally if a hacker is NOT on there, and what wud it be IF a hacker got on there.

My son got on there today and notice it said something about the site you are using is NOT secure and to contact the site administrator.
we've notified them, but they act like it's no big deal! It is a huge deal to us. We don't do any banking online but we depend on our computer for many things.

Isn't hacking a crime? My son says he can get their contact info, and we've considered contacting the police.. or who would you contact? If the site administrators don't seem to care, and your ISP is not easily to contact, then WHOM do you complain to?


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

PalesWales09 said:


> Sorry to sound stupid but what does this mean exactly:
> " a simple way to look for a hacke is to turn off updates close all applications and see if you are using any bandwidth does this several times through the day"


What he means is if you run the Little Snitch program it will show any attempts to use your internet connection, both outgoing and incoming. (and options for allowing/blocking each)



PalesWales09 said:


> Isn't hacking a crime? My son says he can get their contact info, and we've considered contacting the police.. or who would you contact? If the site administrators don't seem to care, and your ISP is not easily to contact, then WHOM do you complain to?


Like mentioned, IP addresses are not private and can easily be discovered. (in addition to other info: browser version, OS info, etc.)
This information isn't inherently a problem for a "hacker" to know. Being that you are using a dial up connection your IP address is likely to change even more than most users and unless you have a hidden program that is sending information out, you shouldn't have to worry. (Little Snitch will tell you if something is sending data out.)

Is your ISP login being wrong the ONLY indication you notice that you might have been hacked?

P.S. Finding out IPs and discovering users multiple accounts isn't really the site's administrators fault and is hardly preventable. If you have been hacked, the issue isn't really that web site so chasing them isn't going to help.


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## aka Brett (Nov 25, 2008)

Contacting police etc is of little good as you are an individual...now if there were cc theft or simular that would be differant.
Another reason you will not get help is because you are not certain you have a hacker.Even if you were and had proof chances are you would get no help.Why? The hackers may be 2000 miles away.Who is on the other end of the pc when its happening.Has the hacker been using a proxy or masking his ip?
It is so much easier to pull a teenager and find pot in his car...makes for an easy days work and they can laugh about how he soiled hisself.
Years ago harsh measures should have been taken with hacking and we would not have this problem at this scale today...but now that is hindsight....Something very important and needs to be addressed is the outdated Os will no longer supports updates.This makes you vulnderable at any time.
There are differant things that a hacker can do....they can log your keystrokes...this can usually be run pretty light and go unnoticed by the user of the hacked machine as the machine will operate normally.
Remote control is the other called a RAT..with this the hacker can view your screen what you do and do what ever they want just as if sitting in front of your machine......These drag you down and you know something isnt right...The hacker gets sloppy and you notice your pc was squirrly acting.
The good..... the Rat sucks for them on dial up...its not worth the bother
Your machine will run so poor and thier view is just as bad.
So lets assume you have been hit by a hacker.
You want them to drop out on thier own and you use fear to do this.
Talk with one of your buddies on the phone tell then whats up.
then email them telling how they have tracked the connection to your pc blah blah...dont get to carried away just keep it simple....do the same thing in instant chat....when the keystrokes get mailed to the hacker he will not connect to you anymore


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