is it easy to be hacked today?

[brannsiu]

I am running windows 10. And I don't have any AV installed

However, I don't normally click on any suspicious sites or links and I don't execute any *.exe files easily

Frankly speaking I have a BIG ENEMY that he is a sophisticated computer programmer. However, I don't know if he has any hacking information

Is it very easy for him or any individual (Who is definitely NOT authorities) to hack into my computer or any other Google accounts to take away my information?

Is it easy for him or any individual to just hack into my desktop and look at my screen and look at what I am doing with the computer?

 

[Supahos]

Easy no, but if he is very good with coding yes he can pop right in. I had a few friends I played games with over the years who could pop in and out of my system like I had no firewall or anything else. If he's on their level you can't stop him with anything off the shelf.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

How easy or hard it is will depend less upon the skills of the hacker than it does on the skills / knowledge of the targeted PC Owner. Awareness of what you are doing and knowledge of what not to do are the 1st steps. Using a password that is easy for you to remember is one that is also easy to guess (i.e birthday). Using AV / malware protection / detection that is free puts you more at risk than one that is not.

Here for example, we see that Windows defender caught only 5/6 zero day malware attacks in June 1015 ... that means 1 outta 6 got thru ... and 1 outta 9 widespread and prevalent malware attacks went undetected.

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/windows-8/june-2015/microsoft-windows-defender-4.7-152347/

In the latest test they did better detecting 96.9 / 98.7 % and 99.6 % / 98.6% which is obviously much better but like a roof that keeps out 98-99% of the rain, still unacceptable in an age when other products stop 100%.

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/windows-8/december-2016/kaspersky-lab-internet-security-2017-164857/

 

[Digital Aurora]

Well, it's not about being hacked or not. It's about eliminating the risks of it. You don't have to click on strange links to get infected. You can have no AV installed and just be connected to the internet and somehow you will get some kind of adware. I've been building computers for years and sometimes after installing windows I wouldn't install an AV straight away resulting in adware within 30 minutes of being online. This usually happened with windows 7 but the possibilities are still there. Adware is a gateway to being hacked. it all starts with something small which then leads to malware and then a key logger being installed which then leads to the key logger reporting back to the hacker with your Facebook, twitter, bank details, and everything else you've done on your PC. which then can lead to the hacker finding your email address and targeting you for a RAT (Remote Access Trojan) which then allows the hacker to view your webcam, look at what you do, see your girlfriend when you Skype. he then thinks she's pretty, targets her for a RAT. views her webcam and takes snaps of her while she's dressing. shares those images online and all hell breaks lose. you lose your girlfriend, you life becomes miserable. you die alone. All because you thought you might be okay without Antivirus.

But yeah, Install an AV dude.

 

[brannsiu]

I have a friend who is a computer enthusiasist and he is studying a software engineering degree and his conclusion to me is that if it's that easy for someone to hack into windows system it would become a breaking news for the world. He said nothing is impossible but the chances are very low, whether any AV is installed or not.

but someone here is saying it's very likely.

 

[Digital Aurora]

Your computer enthusiasts is unfortunately very incorrect. I have done such attacks before and have seen them being done before. A Remote Access Trojan and encrypting viruses into images or other files has been done and can be done and is generally much harder for AV programs to detect. Although Avast has been found to detect the signatures of most of these. I'm studying Cyber Security and have worked in the IT field for over 9 years. I can promise you that this is all real world stuff because i have done it myself.

 

[Paul NZ]

Trojan remover will find it and remove it. If it were a trojan horse.

It'll probably do a better job than most AV programs. Since it'll also remove the entries for whatever from scheduled tasks and the registry. Which I doubt most AV programs can do

Then reset whatever back to its default settings

 

[brannsiu]

Your computer enthusiasts is unfortunately very incorrect. I have done such attacks before and have seen them being done before. A Remote Access Trojan and encrypting viruses into images or other files has been done and can be done and is generally much harder for AV programs to detect. Although Avast has been found to detect the signatures of most of these. I'm studying Cyber Security and have worked in the IT field for over 9 years. I can promise you that this is all real world stuff because i have done it myself.

Then what should I do or what specific software should I download and install now in order to protect my PC from those hacks or minimize the risks

 

[Digital Aurora]

As I said before. Avast would be my recommended Anti-Virus software i would also recommend using something like "Key Scrambler" to protect yourself from keyloggers. I would also use two factor authentication wherever possible to prevent data from being lost or stolen if someone does manage to gack anything.

 

[brannsiu]

As I said before. Avast would be my recommended Anti-Virus software i would also recommend using something like "Key Scrambler" to protect yourself from keyloggers. I would also use two factor authentication wherever possible to prevent data from being lost or stolen if someone does manage to gack anything.

hi I've jsut googled keyloggers and found out "https://www.qfxsoftware.com/index.html"

1. is it an authentic site and a trusted one? their website looks crappy
2. does it protect only passwords or all kinds of input ? For example, notepad

 

[brannsiu]

is the only difference between the free Personal one, Pro and Premium are only the number of supported browsers? is free Personal one already good enough and fully funcitonal??

 

[Digital Aurora]

The Free version protects browsers.
The Pro version protects more applications like Steam, notepad, and other programs. In my opinion just get the free version as browsers is where you'd need it most.

 

[brannsiu]

in that case, all email typed in through browsers or google doc (online version) are protected?

In fact, could it protect input of language otherwise than English? It's one of the Chinese input method by Google

all key entered are practically first manipulated by the Google Chinese input method and then becomes the actual text I want.

 

[Digital Aurora]

Yes. It will scramble all keyboard strokes entered. So the keylogger will receive random characters rather than what you actually typed. It's a very simple but powerful software.

 

[brannsiu]

should this one be a better alternative? Oxynger

It's free.