I'm sorry if this is a bit out of category, but I am looking for some resources for the following issue:

I believe my computer was hacked by someone I know a few days ago. I have not touched my laptop since the person I believed hacked it, I believed they might have used a key logger or team viewer; when I turned on my laptop since this last person's use of it, my entire computer has been wiped clean - it looks like there was a logical hard ware failure or crash; my documents are gone, I no longer have any MS or Adobe applications. Is there a way a hacker expert can determine if my computer was hacked? Would you know where I can find such a service? This is very important as I believe the information obtained from my computer is being used against me.

Is there a way I can prove this?

Thanks for your time,

Veronica

Is there any free software to prevent hacking?

stargirlbyjs wrote:I believe my computer was hacked by someone I know a few days ago.

What caused you to first suspect this? And is there any reason you know of why someone would want to do this?

stargirlbyjs wrote:I believed they might have used a key logger or team viewer

Why do you think that? Also, this is not a hack, but a way to monitor usage. (possibly after a hack)

stargirlbyjs wrote:when I turned on my laptop since this last person's use of it, my entire computer has been wiped clean

So other people use the laptop? In that case, basically all bets are off. Once someone has physical access to your machine, you can't be sure it's not been messed with. And if you know who else uses it, ask then if they wiped any data.

stargirlbyjs wrote:it looks like there was a logical hard ware failure or crash

Why does it look like that? Hardware failure or crashes generally don't wipe data.

stargirlbyjs wrote:my documents are gone, I no longer have any MS or Adobe applications

Unless you have a backup, there's probably not much you can do about this. You can look at some undelete software, but depending on how well it was wiped, and how long it's been since then, you might be out of luck.
Let this be a lesson to you to always make backups.

stargirlbyjs wrote:This is very important as I believe the information obtained from my computer is being used against me.

Let this be a lesson to you to store sensitive information encrypted. If you're being blackmailed, call the cops.

stargirlbyjs wrote:Is there a way a hacker expert can determine if my computer was hacked?

It all depends. If it was someone else who also uses your laptop, and it's been wiped since, probably not. If it was an attack over the internet, there might be logs in your router.
Again, any evidence on the machine will likely have been lost if it's been wiped.

stargirlbyjs wrote:Is there a way I can prove this?

Same answer as the question above.

lucabrazi wrote:Is there any free software to prevent hacking?

Firewalls and antivirus are a good first defense and will stop many automated attacks.
But if someone is really targeting you, and really wants to get in. They'll be able to sooner or later.
Don't count on not being hacked, count on that you will be at some point. Keep backups, and keep private data encrypted.

Common sense is your best weapon against any attack.

I FIGURED OUT WHAT HAPPENED!!!!!

No- this wasn't a shared laptop, but I had to let the IT person at my last job get on my laptop to connect me to the company server and THEN everything was gone. Anything, this is a loooong story but I may be able to take this case to federal court, depending how the civil law suit settles (the whole, them using the info they found against is a court issue now)... anyways...

I had an IT/administrative person take a look at my computer after the fact (sorry, I have to move backwards here for a sec.... the person I bought my laptop from was the IT guy and my ex boss (married) about 3 months before this happened). Turns out that my laptop was on a shared domain located at the office of my last job, so when they decided to cut me off from their domain, all of the programs that were on my computer were actually all shared through their domain, so those programs and applications disappeared when I wasn't part of the domain anymore. All the online apps, like Chrome, stayed, makes sense to me now.

Anyway, you can't sell someone a computer and monitor it/not tell them it is on a shared domain. You can blame me for not knowing better, but it's not something I knew to even check before buying/using the laptop. They can get in huge trouble for this, lots of privacy issues here.

Ah, I see.

Well, at least you know what's going on now.

stargirlbyjs wrote:I'm sorry if this is a bit out of category, but I am looking for some resources for the following issue:

I believe my computer was hacked by someone I know a few days ago. I have not touched my laptop since the person I believed hacked it, I believed they might have used a key logger or team viewer; when I turned on my laptop since this last person's use of it, my entire computer has been wiped clean - it looks like there was a logical hard ware failure or crash; my documents are gone, I no longer have any MS or Adobe applications. Is there a way a hacker expert can determine if my computer was hacked? Would you know where I can find such a service? This is very important as I believe the information obtained from my computer is being used against me.

Is there a way I can prove this?

Thanks for your time,

Veronica

Generally, issuing "netstat -noa" 2 mins after windows is done booting and is live on the Internet, w/out having opened any software, answers this question...

Da_Devil wrote:Generally, issuing "netstat -noa" 2 mins after windows is done booting and is live on the Internet, w/out having opened any software, answers this question...

There were some concerns the machine had been wiped though. But in other cases, it'd be a helpful thing for sure.