In the early days of cyberattacks, many hackers were eager to brag about their nefarious achievements by defacing websites or running programs that said “You’ve been owned.” These days, attackers are far more subtle and use a variety of exploitation tools that often take weeks to detect.
Even if you keep your firewalls up to date, hackers are coming up with better, stronger attack methods and malware to evade your systems. Luckily, there are common signs that indicate when a hacker has breached your network defenses.
Sluggish computer performance
The most obvious indication of being hacked is a slow computer or internet service. To confirm this, run Task Manager on Windows or the Activity Monitor app on Mac to check CPU usage when all programs are closed. If there is high CPU usage at that time, or applications are taking longer than usual to load, there’s a good chance your computer is using up bandwidth and RAM to download and run viruses and malware.
Your contacts are receiving spam
To spread their malicious code, hackers pull contact details from your email and social media accounts to send bogus messages with downloadable malware under your name. When friends and coworkers tell you they’ve received strange email, Facebook, or LinkedIn messages from you, you should run a complete antivirus scan and notify everyone about your compromised account to minimize the spread of infection.
Password changes
If you can’t access your online accounts, even with the right login credentials, hackers may have slipped into your accounts and changed your passwords. To compromise accounts, hackers use either brute-force methods to guess your password or phishing emails to trick users into giving away access codes.
The best way to avoid these attacks is by setting strong passwords and changing them regularly. You should also keep an eye out for potential scams, as legitimate services rarely send unsolicited emails asking for personal information.
Unwanted websites, toolbars, and pop-ups
Strange toolbars, suspicious pages asking for personal details, or an unfamiliar search engine as a homepage are usually signs of browser hijacker malware. Hackers often use these programs to redirect users to unwanted websites, trick them into clicking spyware-ridden pop-up ads, and downloading software that could inflict more harm to their network.
When you spot any of these elements, don’t make things worse by interacting with them. Work with a security expert to find the malicious program and quarantine or remove the infection safely.
Malfunctioning security software
Another sure sign of a breach is when antivirus software has been automatically disabled without your permission. Recently, malware authors developed DoubleAgent, a program that can make antivirus software whitelist common viruses or ignore malicious activity.
Preventive measures are the only way to defend yourself against these attacks. Keep security software updated and enable behavior-based detection features to check for any traces of malicious programs corrupting your system.
Critical system failure
Frequent computer crashes, or blue screens of death, can be caused by outdated drivers, incompatible software, malware bugs, or denial-of-service attacks. Before assuming you’ve been hacked, rule out the first two causes by installing software updates and disabling conflicting applications such as two antivirus programs performing a full system scan at the same time.
If none of these problems are apparent in your computer, consult with a trusted managed IT services provider to root out the virus causing your crashes.
As one of Atlanta’s leading managed IT services company, we here at IntelligISTM take security very seriously. If any of these hacking symptoms show up and persist, contact our security consultants at www.intelligis.com right away. We’re partnered with Cisco to provide you holistic cybersecurity solutions that make your business impervious to any attack.
