Help, I'm being cyberstalked!

Discussion in 'Computer Science & Culture' started by Talon, Mar 7, 2013.

  1. Talon Registered Member

    Messages:
    1
    Hi, I am a new member and hope someone can give me some advice? I am a graphic designer and have been working part-time for a company in the silicon valley. A couple of their techies have been cyberstalking/cyberbulling me several months. Every new email I make has been hacked within hours and the password and usernames are both changed. They have been skimming my royalties, and monitoring my every move on the internet. I did a system restore on my laptop and restored it to factory settings but they still were able to monitor my every move. I called my laptop's company security and was told they were probably stalking my IP address. This makes complete sense as this company does know my laptop ip address. They also know every move I make when I am surfing the web on my BlackBerry. I reported them to the FBI months ago but the FBI never returned any of my calls, never emailed me..nothing. Probably because their really busy I'm assuming. I cannot afford to hire a private investigator however I need to find out the names of the individuals doing this so I can press charges. Does anyone have any advice that can steer me in the right direction?
     
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  3. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Use a proxy, it hides your IP address. There are some programs that make this very easy.
     
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  5. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    first of all you must remember that the internet is a vast "party line", everyone has a right to be here and pretty well go to whatever link or site they wish to.
    you mentioned "a couple of their techies" which implies you have at least some idea of where this is coming from.
    personally i would go to management of the companys involved (where "techie" works) and inform them.
    to be on the safe side i would also write a letter to the local police about this.
    be sure to spell out that you just informed management, you need to give them time to deal with it.
     
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  7. Kittamaru Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Adieu, Sciforums. Valued Senior Member

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    Sounds like a keylogger... honestly, your best bet is to disconnect the computer 100% from the network, wipe it clean (format and reinstall from disc), and start using either a Goldkey system (requires you to insert a physical, pass-coded USB drive into the machine to log in) or get a damn good password.
     
  8. R1D2 many leagues under the sea. Valued Senior Member

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    I will add you may also get rid of internet for a while. Use the lybrary, or a friends for a short time. And I don't think any passwords will be safe..
    I had a great password on a Email a while ago and that got hacked.
    So I changed it every other month going on a year soon. And I have not lost that email again, yet. Hopefully that aggravates some would be hackers...
     
  9. R1D2 many leagues under the sea. Valued Senior Member

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    2,321
    You could be the hacker.
    WHERE IS MY TIN FOIL HAt!
     
    Last edited: Mar 8, 2013
  10. leopold Valued Senior Member

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    i just love bootable CD drives, makes it virtually impossible to pass boot sector viruses.
    sounds like kittamaru has the plan, be sure to use the original install disc that came with the machine.
     
  11. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    23,049
    also contact all your finatial services and get single use key codes for your accounts so that even if they get your PIN they still can't your account without the encoder
     
  12. Crunchy Cat F-in' *meow* baby!!! Valued Senior Member

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    8,423
    Raise the issue with your manager and the IT staff (bosses included). I'll speculate that your techs are not hacking you but rather you may have inadvertantly downloaded keylogging software and some 3rd party outside of your company is hacking you. Make sure they are aware that Royalties are actually being stolen as that is financial Fraud. They will examine your computer, cut the offenders off, and likely assist you in any kind of identification and persecution of the offenders.
     
  13. The Marquis Only want the best for Nigel Valued Senior Member

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    2,562
    Silicon Valley, huh.

    Every recruiter makes a mistake once in a while, and every genius is flawed.
     
  14. wellwisher Banned Banned

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    Why don't programmers create offensive tools for protection. A firewall is a defensive measure. What I have in mind is a doberman pincher program, which if the gate is opened by the wrong person, it sends out the dog to shred. We tend to set up defenses against attack, but with no offensive fire power to deter the attempt. Sometimes the best defense is a good offense.

    If I only build my wall bigger and wider, hackers will build a bigger ladder. But if I lay trip wires in the wall, that will pour boiling oil down the ladder, the hacker has more to worry about.

    Is the defensive path chosen by business since it will sell more product?

    If I was software company, dealing in defensive measures, I could actually help my business by indirectly training hackers. The trick is to do what governments do, which is indirectly release blue prints for last generation products through the grapevine. This allows you to know the capability of the hackers, so you can stay one step ahead. One step ahead, in a controlled manner, makes you look good. This can also keep the hackers closer to par, so others have to constantly upgrade from the previous generation.

    Without offensive measures, the hacker supply and capability is not reduced. If the doberman was released and this shreds the hackers computer, this means less fear of threat. Maybe instead of the doberman we have the blood hound program than can sniff out even from a small article. Then it adds a GPS beacon and activates the web cam.
     
  15. krash661 [MK6] transitioning scifi to reality Valued Senior Member

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    a great hacker does not exist.(trail)

    if they are hacking your IP , why not use that to fine out who or what ?
     
  16. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    Offensive tools aren't anything new (Such methods were considered in crackproofing software to disable peoples computers should they attempt to install cracked software). The problem is that attacks can be misdirective, after all all you would need is someone to spoof an IP and suddenly you're exacting vigilante revenge on an IP that some poor person that had nothing to do with the attack suffers your wrath. It would get to the point where those that have been attacked become the attackers of some other innocent. There is also the added problem that any change in code can cause changes in how systems work, which in turn could cause false positives to be drawn.
     
  17. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    13,105
    There will always be trails, it's just endpoints and proxies that "obfuscate" a true location, as with the growing posed "Menace" of hackers, industrial changes are being planned and will be employed to make it even more difficult to make a trail go cold. There are also many ways to trace, digital forensics isn't just about identifying a connection between A and C via B, it's also about the methods used, the coding practices and signatures.

    "Hacking an IPa" is suggesting a probe and attempted exploit of whatever is running at that particular endpoint. What the OP's seems to suggest is that the people responsible have already been accessing his computer and accounts, which in turn applies that it's not being "Hacked" but already exploited either by installed software or a manipulation of his connection to be forced through an invasive proxy.

    To identify "who" he'd have to identify if it's a trojan or a proxy, if it's a trojan he can then identifier where information is being transited (in the most cases this is likely an IRC eggdrop of process actions, tasks running, windows opened, email accounts used, passwords and usernames as well as potential logs of any chat software used like MSN/Yahoo etc)
    If information is being outputted, then he'll require honeypotting by manipulating "too good to be true" information for a hacker to collect, perhaps a flagged bank account, maybe a flagged account online etc.

    If it's a proxy, then it's a little different, since a proxy server could be loaded into a backbone or part of a cloud somewhere, it makes a little more difficult to point fingers, however easier to remove since it's just removing the proxy pointers from their computer.
     
  18. darksidZz Valued Senior Member

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    Can't he just get something to monitor the outgoing connections and block any he doesn't verify? Would that be a firewall? I mean he can find something really specific here that locks out everything except what he specifically lets through? I also find it hard to believe that it's possible because he'd need a connection that was reliable and had an IP that didn't change, as well as software allowing the person to remotely monitor their PC in the first place which would take up some memory right?
     
  19. iwishyoulovedme Registered Member

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    I too am experiencing a similar problem. I have tried everything the OP did also. I keep my software fully updated, use windows xp firewall and a router firewall, and use an antivirus solution, as well as spybot and malwarebytes.

    No keyloggers have ever been detected though I found very rarely a virus or trojan which have almost always been detected while the download was in progress. I do have an unusual connection that I can change the ip address to a few others by an unusual trick. Yet I seem to be stalked by a person/s who seem to know my every move on the internet.

    I use firefox with the most secure settings and noscript and adblock. I have placed a warning in places I suspect the stalker visits about what I would do to them if I caught them yet it has no effect. They don't think I'm serious yet I am deadly serious. What can I do besides the advice you offer here?
     
  20. Stryder Keeper of "good" ideas. Valued Senior Member

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    13,105
    If your really having problems then what you could do is build your own monitoring point on your connection to the internet. You just require an old PC (probably pickup one cheap enough secondhand, if you don't happen to have a dinosaur sitting around), get hold of the www.pfsense.org firewall OS (basically a custom BSD build). You could try it with just a live CD or using a USB stick if the computer allows USB booting, however if you want to install various modules for aiding protection then you'll need the install.

    Make sure you have adaptors that fit your connection (and work with the OS), for instance if you are hooking to a cable network or ASDL connection, you want to be able to connect directly to the box from that, you'll also need a second adaptor as an output, this could connect to a router, switch, hub or directly to your PC.

    The external box can be used to monitor you're outgoing connections and where they are bound, because it's an external box (and BSD) it negates any potential rootkit issues that would otherwise happen with attempting detection on the same system as the problem exists on. (Your OS could be made to "hide" what it's actually doing, but it could be detected if something is there, through packet sniffing.)
     
  21. Buddha12 Valued Senior Member

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