I have a terrible problem!

It sounds like you have been hacked, do you run a good firewall? You aren't running a proxy are you? I have seen a proxy set up that was not secure and several thousand emails were sent.

Cheers

 

Blackspear
I have sygate firewall.I've always liked it.I have Panda platium av which also has a firewall but I have the firewall disabled.In your opinion which firewall is best--sygate or panda?

 

Fellow Creatures if I have missed this in this thread I'm sorry.

After we are sure Ritaann's problem is cured, I would like the members to offer their thoughts on how this may have happened. This is the kind of nightmare that really concerns me. My prevention thinking on this is I have several email boxes each with a different level of security as to who gets to know about it. (All are set with defaults set by Comcast webmail). For example business box has the tightest security level, only need to know. Newsletters etc. not really very tight and so on. Of course random email selection guessing programs to spam folks; this method may not offer much protection.

My goal here is to see if the community can offer some prevention ideas.

It sounds as if things are getting better for her already.

 

I was under the impression that spammers will sometimese just use other's emaill addresses to make the emails seem more legitimate (until you open them), is this not true? If that's the case, prevention would be following the standard measures taken to not get spam in the first place.. don't give your real email address out to companies- use TrashMail.net or SpamGourmet.com, etc.

 

Hello Mercurie
Yes,I believe my problem may be cured.no more emails have been sent from my email address since I changed my password etc.I' watching very closely now,before I rarely looked in my sent folder because i dont send many emails and I'd only delete them maybe once a month.When i started getting a few emails that were undelieverable (which I hadnt sent)I contacted aol about them and ask why I would be getting them since I didnt send the mail in the first place.Thats when they ask me to check my sent mail folder and see if there was any in it I hadnt sent.sure enough there were about 250.all the same email sent to 250 different people.I feel so dumb because i didnt even think about checking my sent folder when i got the mailer dameon emails about the ones that couldnt be delievered,I just didnt think to do it--stupid i guess.I learn something new every day and some of it the hard way!I was so paniced yesterday!One thing i wonder is why they didnt send one to everyone in my address book also.?I'm glad they didnt.I would have been mortified if everyone i know had received one.It's bad enough that all those people i didnt know received one and think I sent them!I hope it's over.I feel it is anyway.

 

Before i made my first post in your thread here..I already knew you used Sygate.

But i was wondering ritaann if this every happened to you again...or was it just that one time?
see here
http://forums.speedguide.net/archive/index.php/t-149386.html

Sygate is a good fire wall if you understand how it works and have set it up for your needs.

 

Hi Notok
These people didnt just use my email address,they accessed my email account some way.When opened they were like i had sent them.I dont know how they done it.I dont understand how it could have happened.I never ever give out my password!also I have a firewall etc.Of course i really dont understand anything much about this sort of thing or how it happened.I do know I've done everything i know to do, to be safe.but it happened with doing all i know to do.I sure hope it's over and wont happen again.

 

Hi Primrose
just the one time,havent had any more port scans.I do like sygate.

 

Hi ritaann

I believe Panda's firewall is a rebadge Sygate link (please correct me someone, if i'm mistaken), so perhaps Panda's firewall is the pro version of Sygate. If you are using the free Sygate there might be a bit more protection in the Panda av/fw combo.

Anyway i'm glad your problem seems to be fixed, lets hope it stays that way.

 

Hi Don
You may be right.The link says it's a partner.I have never even looked at Panda's firewall included with the av.I already had sygate firewall when I got Panda and liked it.I thinkI'll go take a look.If it is the same it may be a bit better version like you said.Ihope my problem is fixed.I feel it is but what do I know--not much.Thanks Don

 

Ritaann, can you download Port Explorer from DCS and see if you have an open port.

Cheers

 

ok I'll do that and post back--thanks

 

I'm going down this line because someone has had physical access to your computer, in that they have actually used your email client to send emails, and a copy of those emails was in your sent items folder. So in order to do this there has to be an open port, or a proxy program was/has been used to share the internet between your computer and another in your house, and this has been done leaving open ports.

Cheers

 

I'm downloading port explorer now and i did scan on shields up too--here are results from there

 

Do your Anti-virus logs show any Trojans or Worms around the same time as the emails being sent?

Can you post a list of the security that you are using.

Cheers

 

no,the logs show nothing. as far as I know I've never had a virus or trogan.I run the av scan about twice a week.I'm using panda platium av,ewido,sygate firewall,have adware se,spyware blaster,giant,spyware guard and spybot S&D,winpatrol and aol spyware protection.I update them all regularly.Plus I have wormguard too.

 

Here's one that was just brought to my attention, and why I didn't think of it pfffffht, as I use the same for a hotmail account, do you have your web-based email account brought in through a email client on your PC and synchronized this way?

Cheers

 

blackspear
I have an aol email account.

 

You are safe and secure Ritaann, LowWaterMark just filled me in on how AOL handles its email, and it is all web-based, and as such there is little you can do other than change your password and check the security of your computer, both of which you have completed.

Cheers

 

Good to know that i've done everything i can to be safe.I will from now on check my sent email folder every day though!Thank you for your help Blackspear

 

Hi ritaann

Something worth looking at and considering that may help with passwords: Password Safe.

Regards,

CrazyM

 

thanks CrazyM
sounds like a good program sincePassword Safe is a tool that allows you to have a different password for all the different programs and websites that you deal with, without actually having to remember all those usernames and passwords. That sounds like something I need, since its such a chore to try and remember a bunch of different ones.Thanks for the link.

 

Another good little program for generating passwords is Keymaker 2.0

http://www.itoolpad.com/products/keymaker/

Cheers

 

thanks for the link Blackspear!

I downloaded it and really like this prog.It's easy to use ,a big plus in my case

 

My pleasure Ritaann, with that program you can use the first part of a website and a secret word (I have used the word “vegemite” in the following examples) to generate a password, i.e.

hotmail vegemite

wilders vegemite

aol vegemite

It is best to use at least 2 of the symbols found above 1 to 0 on your keyboard, this strengthens the password incredibly (as per screen shot).

Cheers