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Yesterday I received a very suspicious e-mail from a friend, the subject was just not her style.
Instead of opening it, I phoned her. She had not sent it, and on looking at her 'Sent' folder, it was apparent that her account had been hacked.
She then sent a warning e-mail to everyone in her address list.
I have two questions for the more up to date people out there:-
1) Is there any way of cleansing the account, or should it be closed after retrieving addresses and any important e-mails saved elsewhere?
2) Is there a chance that the computer has been compromised in any other fashion?
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1) It's probably not to do with her email account specifically (but not certainly - as it might be a server-level bug). It's probably more likely that her computer is infected with something that is using her email account to covertly spread itself.
2) There is a chance that the computer has been compromised (see above), but it's unlikely to do any great harm to it or she would probably already know about it (i.e. the thing wouldn't work). It's more likely that the bug will attempt to extort money from her and her email friends via scareware and false advertisements. If she stores unencrypted passwords or bank account info on it then it might steal those too. It might also have a keylogger; which will attempt to use information she types into the computer to establish bank login details and whatnot.
Solution: wipe it out. She needs to run anti-virus/spyware software to remove it. If that fails to find anything (which would surprise me), then she should contact her email provider to find out from them what it could be.
Hope it helps.
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also could be e-mail spoofing
"How sad to see, what used to be, a model of decorum and tranquility become like any other sport, a battleground for rival ideologies to slug it out with glee"
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I can recommend the falling:-
<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pendriveapps.com/software/portable-antivirus-firewall/">http://www.pendriveapps.com/software/po ... -firewall/</a><!-- m -->
This website basically provides everything you need to boot and run LINUX from a pen drive/memery stick. The particular page given above list the anti-virus options than can installed, including one from AVG - a well know brand.
This can be a bit technical but does have the advantage of allowing you to scan the hard drive without having to boot from it and possibly running any unwanted code. It is really worth the effort. It allows me to clean up the boys PC as and when the need arrives very easily.
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i had a similar situation where my account was spontaneously sending pornographic emails to everyone on my mailing list. this embarrasing situation was resolved in the first instance by deleting all my contacts so it could not be used. the second course of action was to ask for help from my server who then reset everything for me, including new passwords. touch wood it has not happenned again.
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