Am I Hacked?

Ben Green

Estimable
Feb 16, 2015
8
0
4,510
Today I woke up and played a game of SarCraft. Afterwards, I got a contact request on Skype from some random account which looked like a spam account. I clicked on it and suddenly, through my headset: "sorry if we intruded your privacy, we did not" then I was too scared and immediately shut down the pc. Does Skype have some text to speech, or is my pc hacked!
 

Cody Odom

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
5
0
10,510
I get these a lot with kik on my iPhone. It shouldn't be too much to worry about but DEFINITELY run a scan, Malwarebytes is good and free. The reason I added this is that hitman seems sketchy and I can't find much on it. But malwarebytes leaves traces of it's installation, which isn't a bad thing but it is annoying
 

Ben Green

Estimable
Feb 16, 2015
8
0
4,510
Thanks for the 2 quick answers, I'll scan with malwarebytes next time I can start up the pc without s**tting my pants? I'll try spy bot if malwarebytes finds nothing.
 

Cody Odom

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
5
0
10,510
Actually just use both, since they look for different types of viruses. There's a lot of "trigger viruses" out there *I don't know what they're actually called...* That don't actually do anything but scare you and delete themselves. I've seen some uh..terrifying stuff...Anyway, that's what it sounds like. Coming from Skype and announcing itself like that just don't seem logical. I wouldn't worry too much about turning it on and it's the best thing you can do; If it IS a virus the damage is done and you'll want to get rid of it before it has a chance to harvest data. Again, I wouldn't worry. Let us know if anything weird happens when you turn the computer back on.
 

Cody Odom

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
5
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10,510
Firewall is more of a bomb shelter without a turret. Basically, it's worth it to get a separate antivirus and just keep both on. As for Comodo, it's also a lesser known solution but I believe it's decent. Bitdefender is currently the best antivirus, free and paid. Whether it's a gaming or work system also matters since some anti viruses can really use up performance. I can recommend Bitdefender, and I will, but in the end you really need to do your own research.

Edit: Not all antiviruses are the same like I said earlier. Some search for malware like a virus that would simply change your search engine and lock it to that one, while some search for more dangerous viruses like keyloggers, which record passwords and the like. Use an "antivirus" always and run something like spybot once a week or month.
 

Cody Odom

Honorable
Sep 25, 2013
5
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10,510


That's why I suggested it's necessary to do your own research and decide what works for you. Every computer is different and every scenario is different.
 

babernet_1

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May 8, 2012
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10,570


Do both anyways. I find that each one finds different things.
 

Ben Green

Estimable
Feb 16, 2015
8
0
4,510
Update on what's happened: I appeared to have **at myself over a text-to-speech program I had. I didn't know it had text-to-speech functions, but it appeared to. Now I feel like a complete idiot who just ramped up all of my security because I thought it was a threat... oh well, thanks for trying to help anyway :)
 

babernet_1

Honorable
May 8, 2012
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10,570


No problem, but you should make it a habit of running these spyware products every week or two anyways.
 

Skylyne

Estimable
Sep 7, 2014
405
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5,010
A couple little corrections should be made here...

First, Spybot USED to be a substantial program, but it's gone downhill over the years. Avast is definitely better, even though I never recommend it (personal reasons). Secondly, Comodo AV is pretty useless, as it's way too paranoid, and flags way too many things for the average user. If you want a new firewall, Comodo's FIREWALL is a good choice; just use the firewall though... that's about all that's worth using.

As far as antimalware goes, HitmanPro and MBAM are always a good pair to run in conjunction with a quality AV. If you do a lot of downloading, browse unknown websites a lot, or you aren't very careful with what you do on the internet, then weekly scans are a good idea. If you're actually quite careful, then bi-weekly to monthly isn't going to hurt you.

But yeah, it's nice to hear this was just some random text to speech mishap. Definitely would suck if there was something malicious going on.
 

Ben Green

Estimable
Feb 16, 2015
8
0
4,510


Okay, I generally try to be careful and I use online web scanners if a link isn't something I recognize. I'll also look into getting another antivirus if you think I should. The main reason I used it was because it's an all-in-one thing so I can just manage it all with 1 panel...well, I guess I'm just too lazy ^^
 

Skylyne

Estimable
Sep 7, 2014
405
0
5,010
I ran Comodo's AV for about a year or two, just out of curiosity, and hated it. It would halt legitimate Window's processes, flag so many background services, and pester me endlessly during installs. If I shut off certain features of the AV to stop pestering me, it was useless. They may have come up some in quality the recent months, but I wouldn't expect them to be that much better than before. The last test results from independent labs I saw (late last year), Comodo was pretty poor of a performer (if they were even bothered to be tested). I'd shut off the AV, and either go with none or get a better one. Your pick, but Comodo's AV just isn't worth toying with.

And like I said, while I don't like AVast, it's definitely a huge improvement over Comodo. Using online scanning is a common practice for me, even when Webroot finds a file it doesn't like (using a modified .dll file), and typically it's relatively harmless... you just need to know your file source, how to spot a real threat, and use proper surfing habits. You can pretty much make yourself 90+% infection-proof with good browsing habits, if you care to do it. The other 10% I'd say is due to infected USB drives, borrowed external drives, CDs burned with a virus, non-malicious government spyware (well, non-malicious until a hacker learns how to deal with it)... those kinds of things.