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PROBLEM: In the past couple of weeks - around mid-May 2015, I found a folder named "Hacked" in my Recycle Bin and in another recent case, several Files and shortcuts that I had previously emptied from my Recycle Bin show up back in my Recycle Bin. Up until a few weeks ago, I have not had this problem or any other problem.

ACTIONS: I emptied my recycle bin when the "Hacked" folder showed up and emptied the recycle bin when the previously deleted files showed up and the folder & files were removed.

QUESTIONS: 1. Why did this "Hacked" folder end up in my Recyle Bin and why are these previously deleted files showing up in my Recycle Bin?
2. What can I do to prevent this type of behavior from happening again? 3. What can I do to determine if my system has been hacked and in need of a cleaning? I run a full McAfee scan regularly - at least weekly if not more.

SYSTEM: I have an HP - Pavilion 23" Touch-Screen All-In-One Computer - AMD A6-Series, running Windows 8.1 and has had McAfee installed from day 1. The system was purchased in April of 2014. I use this system for email and web browsing. I do not goto suspicious sites (i.e. porn) and don't consciously download files or open email from unknown sources.

Thank you for any replies.

JWP
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1 Answers1

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It looks like you might have an unwelcome "visitor" in your PC. AV tools are not perfect and there are many ways to get infected including simply getting a rogue advert delivered on an otherwise innocent website.

First thing is to check in Task Manager to see if you can see any unexpected applications running. You can try to temporarily kill them from there but they will probably reappear before long.

The next step is to get several anti-malware tools. Don't just use one as no single tool discovers everything.

Make sure that, before you make any changes, you create a restore point in case anything goes wrong. Most of the tools will do this for you.

There is nothing you can do to be totally safe from these issues but you can help by taking a few steps:

  • Switch from your ISP's DNS to OpenDNS, create an account for your home network and set up some filtering rules.
  • Don't use an administrator account for normal running, create a standard user account and use that. Keep the admin account just for admin.
  • Install adblock plugins for all of your browsers. You could go further and use something like noscript which will try to block active scripting on a page unless whitelisted but this is a pain to be honest.
  • Install Microsoft EMET and configure with the default Microsoft settings. This protects against a number of potential vulnerabilities.
  • Run occasional checks with anti-malware tools as well as your normal AV.
  • If your PC is running slower than normal, there is a reason. Check it out ASAP. It could be a disk issue or it might be malware.

There is a lot more you can do but these are the basics and they are not too much hassle once you've set things up.

Julian Knight
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