My house traced through an image?

Well here is the story, my friend made a thread on 4chan and a few other friends were on there and they were basically teasing the guys on there, it was on the /b/ section. My friend then asked me to post and to please him I did, I simply posted an image and said the OP (Original poster) is a troll.
Next thing I see is a reply from a guy using my name, the image my friend posted in the original comment was from somebody elses facebook. The guy then posted again under my name this time with a picture of my house from google maps, so by this point i'm a bit worried.
Some time after that the thread was closed and I quickly found another with some guy posting my facebook page, so in the space of about 30 minutes from me posting in a thread he found my house and my facebook page. Now I don't know if anybody is familiar with 4chan but they have been known to ruin lives so i'm not just worried about myself but my family.
However, it is entirely possible that my friends did this just to scare me, none of them admit and deny it, however if this super hakcer found my house he was incorrect on one thing, I was not the original poster so he was tracking the wrong guy, but my friend lives next to me so maybe he found me and assumed it was him.
I don't know, but i'm constantly feeling uneasy about it and need to know if it possible to find such information just from posting an image on an image board. The person that did this, friend or some random super hacker, was basically asking 4chan to track me down further, now if this was a friend then I am not as worried but if it is a random person then he can quite easily just post my facebook page whenever he wants and my house even. One of my more intelligent friends says this its impossible for somebody to find such information just from an image and he believes it was one of my 2 friends that were in the call with me on skype at the time.

All feedback appreciated.

 

1. Yes, it's possible to trace location through pictures (not a specific house).

2. A good hacker can easily get your IP address and go from there.

3. You don't go to 4chan without expecting trouble, you sure as hell don't post there and tease people. You've got Anonymous and Lulzsec to deal with there plus hundreds if not more script kiddies and punks.

No one is very likely to do a lot to you, you're probably just being screwed with to teach you a lesson, if it isn't a simple case of friends jerking your chain. Change your passwords to every website you use, watch your bank and other sensitive places for unusual activity, and don't ever pull a stunt like that again. You're in over your head. I apologize if that all sounds rather rough, but you just don't mess with that crowd for fun, you will get bit, as you may have found out.

 

The person that posted my facebook page displayed my wall, and only my friends can see my wall, which is why I thought it could be one of my friends.

 

Or they hacked your Facebook account. You may want to report it to Facebook, after you've changed your password of course.

 

I've changed my password, but surely if they could hack my facebook couldn't they simply do it again and it doesn't even matter what password I have? I am sure I was logged in to facebook at the time and I wasn't logged out or anything.

 

1) They probably extracted the EXIF data from the image (This data includes your exact Long and Lat).

2) The only way the hacked you face book is if you used a weak password, gave them your password, or were infected with malware.

3) Scan your computer with a Full scan with an updated AV, Change all of your passwords (Make them 10 or more characters use keypass if you can't remember them), Double check your facebook settings, and enable two-factor authentication on facebook for security.

 

What the hell were you thinking posting images or literally anything on 4chan? That site is a ****hole.

Depending on what you took the picture with they can literally trace youwithin a few meters. I believe iPhone's tag GPS data to pictures, maybe Android phones as well. TRACKING THIS IS INCREDIBLY EASY. You need to be aware of exif data on your pictures... ALWAYS clear your pictures of exif data before uploading to ANY site... especially 4chan.

Seriously. Don't ****ing post on 4chan. It's a horrible site full of horrible people and posting there is begging for lonely bitter nerds to harass you.

I just hope that they don't drag your family into this.

Anyways, as for advice...

1. I'd start loading on security methods from Wilders, same goes for your families computers.

2. Use a known-clean computer to change the passwords to all of your accounts. Email, Facebook, whatever.

3. And this is the most important step. Stop posting on 4chan. The worst thing you can do is continue to post there, especially asking them to stop. That will only make things much MUCH worse.

I hope you've learned your lesson about posting on that site. I just hope that it doesn't escalate.

Thankfully 4chan doesn't usually band together unless there's a 12 year old girl to pick on for the 3p1c lulz. Just lay low, stop posting **** on there, and be more careful.
http://www.digital-photography-school.com/using-exif-data

 

well said hungry

 

After the security hardening, the most important thing is indeed ignoring the 4chan completely. They will stop if there is no more "lulz" to be gained.

That said, there is always a possibility for it to get worse. Harassment through phone etc. Maybe even death threats, as seen in some cases. In that situation, I would contact police, but not worry about the whole thing too much - these are hardcore nerds, it's not like some of them would show up at your front door.

 

Well one thing I have noticed is most of the community is american, in all the raid threads where people are giving out numbers I didn't even see one british phone number, I'm living in England. Also the picture that I posted was not a facebook picture it was another image so I don't even know if it had any EXIF data on it. I am almost certain they did not log on to my facebook due to the fact my password was never changed and if the guy was a hacker then I don't see why he would make another thread asking people to do some damage when he could do it all himself unless it was one of my mates.

 

U dun goofd up!

Seriously though, it sounds to me like it was probably your "friends" having some lulz at your expense. If it was some random pic you got from the net, and not one you took yourself, then the exif data wouldn't be there. Had they hacked your FB account they probably would've had some fun with it, put some demeaning pictures up there and changed your password. None of that happened. So yeah, if any of these "friends" are also FB friends, they're likely suspects since only your friends can see your wall. They know your name, and where you live, so using your name and getting that Google Earth photo, naturally, would be simple.

And just the way they were like: "hey come on man, post some stuff on here", then that stuff happens... it just sounds rehearsed.

It was almost certainly them. That being said, all the advice you got here is still excellent, namely to stop posting on that site. And may I add to the equation another suggestion?: choose your "friends" wisely.

 

I am curious about 4chan now. If a person went to 4chan while connected to Xerobank inside of a sandboxed browser, what could they do?

 

Thegoodguy, ...also if you were registered with a username that could be traced to another identity it could be tied to other info on the internet. Even if you posted anonymously, if your IP was ever used there with some personal identifiable info attached to it, then it could automatically be associated. If you downloaded an image with some kind of embedded malware then someone could have used that to identify you. If this happened to me, I would probably reinstall my OS.

 

When you post on 4chan there is no log in process, everyone is anonymous, also when you make a thread it does not stay there forever, if this guy was a hacker then he must of got my information from the image, but I don't know if EXIF data (or if it was even on the image I used) can display the location of my house.

 

If nothing else has happened since then, meaning you're not being harassed, your bank account is untouched, and things seem to be normal, then don't worry over it for now. You still show an IP address to the website, that's unavoidable. But, again, if nothing else is going on, don't panic. Just don't ever do anything stupid like that again. It's a place for hackers, security researchers (who are very well protected), and law enforcement, not Joe Schmoe. Take it all as a lesson and move on. And, if a friend caused all this ruckus, I suggest taking said person for a little walk into a dark alley and returning the favor

 

I went over there and looked around a little. The FAQ says that the moderators have your IP. So mods can see it. If there was any geolocation data in the image, it would show the geolocation of where and when the picture was taken. So if the picture was *not* taken at your house, it would not show the geolocation of your house.....if there was in fact any geo data in the image at all.

 

Nothing. 4chan isn't a malicious site, it's a clean site with malicious users.

 

I went over and looked around a little. Just looks like a bunch of image posting. I understand that it is a hangout for hackers, but what would be the interest of a security researcher or law enforcement? It really doesn't look like much of anything special to me.

 

Security researchers are interested in it because 1. People "talk" there often. 2. It is not a clean site, if you count malicious links. In fact if you do count them, the place is a minefield. LE goes there for the obvious reasons. Where there are Anon and Lulzsec followers, there will be Anon and Lulzsec.

 

It's not really a site for hackers. Just skiddies.

 

A relatively objective article about 4chan in Wikipedia:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/4chan