HELP!!! I need answers....

I have a question that may be a no brainer, but I have to ask it.
I have found some very unfavorable cookies on one of our home PC's. I didn't have it protected as far as family content goes and certainly have my regrets about that.
My husband and I have questioned the family and naturally no one knows anything. My question is this....is it possible for things to be put on the computer from a remote location? we do have a wireless network, and I know that cookies can come from popups etc (although I have never seen popups like these ) Also, you know the thing that remembers what you have entered into search engines etc....I can't remember what it's called. It usually sets up when you first set up Windows. Anyway, I found some things in a search engine as well. Someone had to have typed those in as searches, right? Everything points to one person in particular, but we can't get a confession. This person swears they didn't look at anything like that. Do I believe it? I'd love to hear that there is a way for this all to happen without touching the keyboard, but am having a hard time with that. Any input out there?

thanks,
momomany

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The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. Proverbs 15:3

Porn can be easy to stumble on by accedent, unless it's something really freaky I would not worry about it.

Not so much freaky as it is unnerving. If it WAS someone here, it was NOT accidental. There were several searches done and numerous cookies from about 5 seperate dates. I just want to know if it's possible to have this happen outside of sitting here at this computer. any answers for that?


Momomany

Cookies can come from anywhere...


But the searches that were entered... They were entered. You can't "accidentally" search for pornography...


I wouldn't worry too much, but make sure you protect your machine. Backups of everything important, an up to date antivirus, a firewall, etc.


As for your can it be done remotely question... yes and no... It could be done remotely, but it wasn't. SOmeone would have had to break into your computer and yadda yadda... If they had been stealing wireless, there would be no local cookies or searches. Look at when the cookies were created, and find out who was on the machine. You then have your culprit. Although, it's not 100%, due again to cookies coming from many places.

Well, I'm still not sure what was happening. Possible yes, but likely someone was looking at the stuff that set the cookies and did the searches. If you are that worried about it watch your kids while there are online. I saw plenty of porn when I was growing up, and I turned out fine.

Now someone please pass me the goat and some cheese wiz. :)

Oh yeah... A firewall will also allow you to monitor internet activity... just look at the logs...


Good luck.

Momomany... Anything is possible when it comes to computers..... In this situation I would say that it is unlikely. I can't see any motive someone would have in planting cookies on your computer and search records.

Take a look at the index.dat file and see what websites were visited and how often. Don't rule out anyone in the house, but it may be time to look at a net nanny type application to lock it down.

The index.dat file....is that what I saw in the cookies list? It did tell me dates, times and how often sites were visited. The ones that say index are generally filled with computer language or just say"Client UrlCache" Some of the sites were visited twice, most only once. I did check out a site, but wished I hadn't. such filth!

BYW...doesn't XP have a firewall? is there a way to look at a log of that?

Unless you either have Service Pack 2 or specifically enabled the firewall... It's not there.


Assuming it is... You still have no useful logs. It is only affects incoming traffic. The logs are by default in the C:\windows directory. I forget the file name... just look for *.log

Assuming firewall logging is turned on you will find is here by default:

C:\WINDOWS\pfirewall.log

but I doubt it would give you much information you could use.

there is a lot of stuff there when I look for *.log but it doesn't seem to be very helpful. I'm not sure what I'm looking for anyway.

Thanks

*cough*

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But the searches that were entered... They were entered. You can't "accidentally" search for pornography...

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Try searching Big Red sometime. It used to be the nickname for Novell - as an unwary CNI found out in class one day so very long ago, it also brings up things like 'big red arses', and their associated popups and cookies if your browser is set to 'most likely site'.

Yes, Mom O Many, porn can be stumbled onto accidentally, however if there are teenagers in your household I'd tend to believe the worst as well. The key here is monitoring your kids online activity - password all accounts onboard, and don't let them know what that password is, *ever*. If they want to have surfing time, and you want to let them, YOU log them in - and sit there watching the entire time - that's the safest method. Second safest is to get something like 'norton guard dog' - which I've heard is a keylogger you plant on your own machine. It lets you monitor exactly who did what when, as you browse the logs at your leisure. If you're worried strictly about pornography, I'd also go so far as to suggest NetNanny - it filters out most of the offending sites completely... the bad side to NetNanny is it's hell when it comes time to do a research paper for say...'human anatomy', surgeries of any kind, or 'censorship.'

Luck to you in controlling your kids.

Just thoughts....(wine induced) :)

Depending on the types of sites... this is normal for kids to look up things...and it is available everywhere.

The other day I was having a discussion with my boss about kids, surfing the net and the content

and he said "they will find it...its out there..and its normal to be curious about sex at their age"

Meaning we can block it at home, school etc..but it is out there and they could be at a neighbours or friends house....and all the filters I have in place at home...wont do any good.

I guess it really depends on the content...cause it is normal.

I remember looking at my dads playboys..hidden under the bed :rolleyes:

My point is..........the content. If it is truly offensive...then there may be other issues to deal with here.

Let them know that you can monitor it...and it may stop..it did for me...no more massivemammories.com etc sites ...lately...

Teach your children well......its not about telling them what to do...

but to make the right choices in life

MLF

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and I know that cookies can come from popups etc (although I have never seen popups like these ) Also, you know the thing that remembers what you have entered into search engines etc....I can't remember what it's called. It usually sets up when you first set up Windows. Anyway, I found some things in a search engine as well. Someone had to have typed those in as searches, right?

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Who the hell actually sees popups now days? Seriously... and I gotta tell ya, from the sounds of things I'd say your the type of monkey who'd ask for help then the next day complain when all of his toolbars and adware is gone.

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Who the hell actually sees popups now days? Seriously... and I gotta tell ya, from the sounds of things I'd say your the type of monkey who'd ask for help then the next day complain when all of his toolbars and adware is gone.

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I'm sorry I missed the helpful advice that you gave, which is what this site is supposedly for.
Oh wait, u didn't give any...

Like what was already said if they are truly going and looking at porn they are going to regardless of what safety precautions you have at home. And even more so, if you lock it down at home, and they really want to see it, they will look at it other places which could lead to more problems, (eg: in school) then if you just left it an open connection. You have to remember that they of course will be curious about it. Have you sat down and talked to them about it yet? Not who was looking at it but maybe you could take some of their curiosity away by explaining what exactly porn is. Meaning someones job so they can pay rent or what ever you choose. I'm only suggesting this because when my little brother started looking at porn one of the main reasons was because he thought it was this secret thing which made him wanna look at it. So we explained exactly what porn is and now he just sees it as their job and isn't really that interested because its not that exciting is his eyes now. If worse comes to worse I'm sure youd rather have them look at porn then going out and physically having sex to settle their curiousity wouldn't you?

I was being kinda broad cause I missed your kids ages if you gave them.

Yes but unlike you I don't pretend that I have usefull advice to offer others meanwhile you've just repeated what two other people have already used to boost post count and turn just another tech-support question into a child care bitch-ah'-thon. Your about as old as I am, most likely single, and have no kids of your own.... don't damn talk to me about bringing content to this site or what the site is for.

What could have happened was one of your kids was looking at a website that wasnt really porn but somehow had some porn content on it, you know like they link to porn websites and your kids could hav accidently or purposely downloaded something like a "dialer" or a program that puts porn pop ups on your pc. I would strongly suggest downloading Awaware and Spybot Search and Destroy and using them. goodluck. The Texan

I think the answer you want to hear is that somone hacked your computer, took remote control of it then used your brower to search for porn. This is how the search results were there, and the cookies.


The correct answer however is your kid/spouse/kids friend was looking at porn.

Password and "No one touches the computer again until I get some answers". Or make them go to the sites with you sitting beside them...that should return the freakout. ;)

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Or make them go to the sites with you sitting beside them...that should return the freakout.

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LMFAO...or start to discuss your porn preferences and why you like it as opposed to other types of porn. that should, if nothing else, embarass the hell out of them. If possible, do it in front of their friends.

I hardly know any of my clients whose kids or spouse or themselves haven't stumbled upon an unsavory site, just by typing the wrong thing such as:

I was in front of a client installing a computer system when I told him I'd show him a great site for local weather, (the site is www.wunderground.com), but I accidently typed www.underground.com. My jaw dropped when something else appeared instead. I think later we kinda laughed about it.

Anyways, since you've asked, there is a chance your family could have accidently stumbled upon some sites, but with actual search words typed, well then, ...the odds are better you are going to win the lottery tonight.

Not telling you how to run your family, but if it were me:

Just revealing the problem to the family (without pointing fingers) is enough to put the fear inside them. That should be first time punishment enough in my book and in alot of cases, they won't do that again out of respect.
But if they persist, your best bet is to once again reveal the continued problem and to inform them that you are going to buy a lockout program (NetNanny or CyberPatrol). There may be other family issues underlying this problem which are causing the lack of respect. If you lose your cool, you've lost the battle and your kids' confidence.

On the other hand, if I was the Teen or Adult and you came down too hard on me (finger pointing, yelling, standing watch over me while I surf), I'd resolve myself to never look at it again at YOUR house and maybe not confide in you again. There are plenty of other places I would go for what I wanted to know and where I would not be attacked.

I dont know how old your children are but as an 18 year old myself I have to say that if my parents started checking up on me or pointing the finger then I would start to lose respect for them. If you want to stop them looking at such content then I would suggest using a net nanny type program to block it in the first place and not bother trying to work out who it is. If you do try and monitor whats done on the computer likely the children will feel a lack of privacy (its like making them leave their bedroom door open all the time so you can see what they are doing in there). This could have an adverse effect on family realationships, also as pointed out before they may resort to looking at it in other places, I know when I was younger alot of boys on my street were to young to buy this sort of thing so they would resort to stealing it.

Hmmm,

I keep reading these posts about how we are not a security site and all that, well this is around the 24th post in this thread and no-one seems to have asked:

1. What operating system are you using (and is it up to date)
2. What browser are you using (and is it up to date)
3. What AV are you running (and is it up to date, and do you scan regularly)
4. What firewall are you running (and is it up to date)
5. What anti spyware are you running (and is it up to date, and do you run it regularly)
6. What anti adware are you running (and is it up to date, and do you run it regularly)
7. What anti trojan are you running (and is it up to date, and do you run it regularly)
8. Is your system permanently connected, or do you dial-up when you want to use it

And finally:

You are running wireless...........so is there any neighbour in close proximity, and what security steps did you take when you installed it?

Without the answers to those questions, everything is pure speculation?

I wouldn't say all the rest is "pure speculation", nihil. I definitely agree with you that technically we can't say anything definite about momomany's problem, but this sort of issue seems so trivial that I feel safe in speaking with a fair amount of confidence.

Sure, it's possible that someone has compromised the system, and altered the registry keys and files in question to give the appearance that someone sitting at the system was deliberately searching for porn, but really....what would be the point of that? I suppose it's possible that one of the suspected party's acquaintences is trying to "frame them" with an attack like this, but if the suspected person isn't supposed to be looking at porn, it's not likely that they are more than 15 or 16 years old. Any acquaintences he/she has would probably not be much older. If that's the case, is it reasonable to believe that someone of this age would be sophisticated enough to run such an attack without leaving ANY sign they were there? It would take quite a bit of effort. Someone that could successfully accomplish such an attack would probably have their eyes set on something bigger...

I know I would. :bigsmile:

when I was 15 I had already began breaking into my schools computers and was just starting out on the whole website defacement garbage that I thought was so cool. So it is HIGHLY possible that the person could be of that age. Aside from that who says they didnt leave any tracks. The person who asked this question obviously knows very little about the way this type of thing works (cookies, auto fills in searchs, etc) so it is vry likley any tracks would have been missed.

The attack it self is not very hard, especially with things like remote desktop being preinstalled on the computer. Simpley crack the password and now you dont have to fake anything, just searcha nd log off and everything is there. So it is not out of reach of somone who is maybe 15 or 16 (considering I am only 19, and would have been able to pull this off at that age) but it is very unlikley that somone would take that much time to do this, especially since looking at porn to most people is not a big deal, so the person proably would get in that much trouble if he were caught.

I have given this some consideration, as you might have gathered from my post?

I am trying to establish the existing security level on this system............

It is quite feasible that in the right circumstances the next door neighbour's kid has been using it as a virtual proxy for his activities.............all he needs to do is backdoor it?...............or any number of other possibilities............no crime scene investigation, no evidence right?

As I said: insufficient information................

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Originally posted here by XTC46
So it is not out of reach of somone who is maybe 15 or 16 (considering I am only 19, and would have been able to pull this off at that age) but it is very unlikley that somone would take that much time to do this, especially since looking at porn to most people is not a big deal, so the person proably would get in that much trouble if he were caught.

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Yep...that's all I was getting at. I don't put any attack beyond the reach of younger kids these days, but it seemed like a lot of trouble to go to for such a mild result considering the risk. Then again, some of the teenagers I've met these days don't seem too logical. :bigsmile:

Download this application, read the instructions/help and you will see exactly what happened.

If it was an accident it will be apparent.... If it was intentional there will be a lot of similar activity thus pointing to a "suspect" by the date and time of the access'....

Then you paddle them...... ;)

Why don't you post the cookies and logs? It can help we to analyse the problem...

The last time Momomany was heard from was the original post date, 4 days ago.

Does anyone think she is even listening anymore, despite being on email notification?

How about it Momomany, what did you get out of all this advice and how have you fared thus far?

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The last time Momomany was heard from was the original post date, 4 days ago.
Does anyone think she is even listening anymore, despite being on email notification

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So let it die... :mad:

i think he try to cover himself