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I have win xp sp2, NIS2006 everything is completely up to date . I use yahoo messenger, yahoo mail and I visit yahoo game rooms.
Today I was on Instant Messenger with someone I considered a friend and I was discussing how a certain person was able to know I was online even when I am invisible. He told me that its possible to by running a special program to tell if someone has a webcam, what they are saying on IM what they are typing to whom and what " games " room they are in even when you have them blocked or are invisible.
I noticed a few hours before chatting with this " friend " that someone had im'd me and was asking me if I had a cam , I said no, ( I have one but don't use it ) was meant only for family out of state but have yet to use it. Anyway, this person kept insisting that I have a cam. I think its the same person I have on my list as a friend.
What I want to know is since I have a firewall and everything is up to date, I've even used black vipers suggestions to shut down unnecessary programs, I also use Mark Janssons suggestions for securing xp ( www.markusjansson.net)
In it he helps you shut down the ms shares and such.. How can this person on yahoo messenger know that I have a cam, or know who I am talking to and such. More importantly how can I stop them ?
Today I was on Instant Messenger with someone I considered a friend and I was discussing how a certain person was able to know I was online even when I am invisible. He told me that its possible to by running a special program to tell if someone has a webcam, what they are saying on IM what they are typing to whom and what " games " room they are in even when you have them blocked or are invisible.
I noticed a few hours before chatting with this " friend " that someone had im'd me and was asking me if I had a cam , I said no, ( I have one but don't use it ) was meant only for family out of state but have yet to use it. Anyway, this person kept insisting that I have a cam. I think its the same person I have on my list as a friend.
What I want to know is since I have a firewall and everything is up to date, I've even used black vipers suggestions to shut down unnecessary programs, I also use Mark Janssons suggestions for securing xp ( www.markusjansson.net)
In it he helps you shut down the ms shares and such.. How can this person on yahoo messenger know that I have a cam, or know who I am talking to and such. More importantly how can I stop them ?
It is possible to know what hardware a user is running. BUT!!!! It is very difficult. If you are concerned with this you need to run Ad-Aware and Spybot, also Ewido and look for Spyware on your system. Spyware can transfer info to Whoever planted the spyware. This info can range from personal data to your hardware, even your browsing habbits. NIS2006 is a great program for Viruses as well as malware. Note that spyware is different from malware and NIS is not really coded to find it, it is more targeted for malware and virus activity. Unfortunatley all of your information that may be compromised in leaving your computer the same way that the internet comes in, and that is port 80. Your firewall cannot block port 80 or you will have no internet. Run a thourough scan with all of these tools. If you are still worried about this, then list all of your services that are running in the background here and I will be happy to take a look at them for you. Also know that there are programs that run silent or better known as stealth, usually someone would need access to your system to install these types of programs. They cannot be found in add remove programs, nor can they be found through the processes that are running on the machine. They are usually controlled by hot keys sucj as <shift> <s> or <shift> <f>, those are common. So in short there are a ton of variables, but to answer your question, it is possible.
ASKER
If I place a keylogger on my own system ( I have two children who use the internet) I like to be aware of what they are doing, will this make it easier for someone to hack my system? or if not (hack) break into my system?
I've noticed some strange things happening lately, most dealing with yahoo messenger. This one person keeps inviting me, as soon as I get the invite, I decline it. Next thing I know whatever I am typing to someone in an IM is being said In a Yahoo game room In what is called the lobby. I can't figure out how they are doing this . If I have a person on invisible or " stealth mode" again they can see everything about my status.
I realise some of you are probably saying why bother you about this. Well Yahoo messenger is a program I have on my computer, my daughter uses it alot to keep in touch with her class mates, I use it to keep in touch with out of state family members. If a person is able to know what I am doing in yahoo messenger are they also able to get into other programs on my system? Does this mean the whole security of my computer is breeched? I use my computer to pay bills online and contact business. If my system is breeched I need to know it .
I have Zone alarm security suite 6.0 firewall / antivirus I am free from adaware and spyware or so it tells me. I do not download unnecessary things or keep irrelevant prgrams on my computer that I have no use for.
The items on all of my computers are very limited.
But from what I can tell this has all happened or been happening around yahoo messenger.
I've noticed some strange things happening lately, most dealing with yahoo messenger. This one person keeps inviting me, as soon as I get the invite, I decline it. Next thing I know whatever I am typing to someone in an IM is being said In a Yahoo game room In what is called the lobby. I can't figure out how they are doing this . If I have a person on invisible or " stealth mode" again they can see everything about my status.
I realise some of you are probably saying why bother you about this. Well Yahoo messenger is a program I have on my computer, my daughter uses it alot to keep in touch with her class mates, I use it to keep in touch with out of state family members. If a person is able to know what I am doing in yahoo messenger are they also able to get into other programs on my system? Does this mean the whole security of my computer is breeched? I use my computer to pay bills online and contact business. If my system is breeched I need to know it .
I have Zone alarm security suite 6.0 firewall / antivirus I am free from adaware and spyware or so it tells me. I do not download unnecessary things or keep irrelevant prgrams on my computer that I have no use for.
The items on all of my computers are very limited.
But from what I can tell this has all happened or been happening around yahoo messenger.
ASKER
I forgot to tell you that I also have zone alarm security suite 6.0 and NIS2006 when one of them gives me a program with a program I uninstall it and install the other. Both are excellent programs but still I can't seem to figure out how these people are getting the information they are getting.
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