How to detect computer & email monitoring or spying software

Posted on August 16, 2007 at 1:46 pm

Make sure to read other posts from the Online Security series!

How to detect computer & email monitoring or spying software
How to protect your computer from hackers, spyware and viruses
Lessons worth learning – How NOT to remain anonymous on the Internet

As an IT Pro, I routinely monitor employee’s computers and emails. It’s essential in a work environment for administrative purposes as well as for security. Monitoring email, for example, allows you to block attachments that could contain a virus or spyware. The only time I have to connect to a user’s computer and do work on directly their computer is to fix a problem.

However, if you feel that you are being monitored when you shouldn’t be, there are a few little tricks you can use to determine if you’re right. First off, to monitor someone’s computer means that they someone can watch everything that you are doing on your computer in real time. Blocking porn sites, removing attachments or blocking spam before it gets to your Inbox, etc is not really monitoring, it’s more like filtering.

Computer Monitoring

So now, if you still think someone is spying on you, here’s what you can do! The good thing right now is that neither Windows XP SP2 nor Windows Vista support multiple concurrent connections while someone is logged into the console (there is a hack for this, but I would not worry about). What this means is that if you’re logged into your XP or Vista computer (like you are now if you’re reading this), and someone were to connect to it using the BUILT-IN REMOTE DESKTOP feature of Windows, your screen would become locked and it would tell tell you who is connected.

So why is that useful? It’s useful because it means that in order for someone to connect to YOUR session without you noticing or your screen being taken over, they have use third-party software and it’s a lot easier to detect third-party software than a normal process in Windows.

So now we’re looking for third-party software, which is usually referred to as remote control software or virtual network computing (VNC) software. First, the easy thing to do is to simply check in your Start Menu All Programs and check whether or not something like VNC, RealVNC, TightVNC, UltraVNC, LogMeIn, GoToMyPC, etc is installed. A lot of times IT people are sloppy and figure that a normal user won’t know what a piece of software is and will simply ignore it. If any of those programs are installed, then someone can connect to your computer without you knowing it as long as the program is running in the background as a Windows service.

That brings us to the second point. Usually, if one of the above listed programs are installed, there will be an icon for it in the task bar because it needs to be constantly running to work.

Check all of your icons (even the hidden ones) and see what is running. If you find something you’ve not heard of, do a quick Google search to see what pops up. It’s usually quite hard to remove something from the taskbar, so if there is something installed to monitor your computer, it should be there.

However, if someone really sneaky installed it and nothing shows up there, you can try another way. Again, because these are third-party apps, they have to connect to Windows XP or Vista on different communication ports. Ports are simply a virtual data connection by which computers share information directly. As you may already know, XP and Vista come with a built-in Firewall that blocks many of the incoming ports for security reasons. If you’re not running an FTP site, why should your port 23 be open, right?

So in order for these third-party apps to connect to your computer, they must come through a port, which has to be open on your computer. You can check all the open ports by going to Start, Control Panel, and Windows Firewall.

Click on the Exceptions tab and you’ll see see a list of programs with check boxes next to them. The ones that are checked are “open” and the unchecked or unlisted ones are “closed”. Go through the list and see if there is a program you’re not familiar with or that matches VNC, remote control, etc. If so, you can block the program by un-checking the box for it!

The only other way I can think of to see if someone is connected to your computer is to see if there are any processes running under a different name! If you go to the Windows Task Manager (press Cntr + Shift + Esc together) and go to the Processes tab, you’ll see a column titled User Name.

Scroll through all the processes and you should only see your user name, Local Service, Network Service, and System. Anything else means someone is logged into the computer!

Email & Web Site Monitoring

To check whether your email is being monitored is quite simple. Always, when you send an email from Outlook or some email client on your computer, it has to connect to the email server. Now it can either connect directly or it can connect through what is called a proxy server, which takes a request, alters or checks it, and forwards it on to another server.

If you’re going through a proxy server for email or web browsing, than the web sites you access or the emails you write can be saved and viewed later on. You can check for both and here’s how. For IE, go to Tools, then Internet Options. Click on the Connections tab and choose LAN Settings.

If the Proxy Server box is checked and it has a local IP address with a port number, then that means you’re going through a local server first before it reaches the web server. This means that any web site you visit first goes through another server running some kind of software that either blocks the address or simply logs it.

For your email, you’re checking for the same thing, a local IP address for the POP and SMTP mail servers. To check in Outlook, go to Tools, Email Accounts, and click Change or Properties, and find the values for POP and SMTP server.

If you’re working in a big corporate environment, it’s more than likely that the Internet and email are being monitored. You should always be careful in writing emails or browsing web sites while at the office. Trying to break through the security also might get you in trouble if they find out you bypassed their systems! IT people don’t like that, I can tell you from experience!

[tags]detect spying software, detecting spy software, detect monitoring software, remote spying, anti-spying[/tags]

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

79 Responses to “How to detect computer & email monitoring or spying software”

John Kinas said on : August 17th, 2007 at 10:47 am

Good review of the more intrusive monitoring methods, but it just scratches the surface. Medium and large organizations typically have all the tools they need to perform very thorough monitoring of web and email traffic without ever touching or directly connecting to your computer because they control firewalls and routers through which internet traffic must pass. Not to increase the paranoia level of your readers, but I would advise everyone who works in a large or medium-sized organizaton to carefully read the organization’s internet use policy. Most corporate internet use policies explicitly warn that employees that they have no reasonable expectation of privacy when using corporate IT resources and that any computer use may be monitored. As the information security officer for a medium-sized organization, I would advise readers to assume that all activities may be monitored and act accordingly. Wait until you’re on your home system before emailing or browsing to anything you would prefer not to explain to your boss.

akishore said on : August 17th, 2007 at 10:52 am

Hi John,

Good point. I wanted to make it clear though that I was trying to focus more on someone actually connecting to your computer terminal and watching everything on your screen as you do it, as opposed to simply capturing all the data that comes out of your computer (email, web sites, etc).

Definitely, there is really now way to get around web and email monitoring at a large or medium sized company, they have way too many checks in place, but usually no one really connects to an employees computer and watches what they are doing.

Cidinho said on : August 17th, 2007 at 11:54 am

If you bypass the monitoring, be careful, cause the first thing they’ll think is that you are covering something bad you’ve done…

Tom Morris said on : August 17th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

Absolutely mirror the first comment. Personally, I’m trying as hard as possible to setup things like SSH tunneling out of unfriendly corporate and educational networks. Encryption is another important component.

Bill said on : August 18th, 2007 at 8:38 am

Thanks for the information, it was helpful. But what about Teredo being selected under LAN Settings/Services? Is that necessary?

greg burkman said on : August 18th, 2007 at 9:39 am

Any advice for those of us on a Mac?

I’m trying as hard as possible to get some movies edited.

Mestizo said on : August 19th, 2007 at 10:59 pm

“If you’re not running an FTP site, why should your port 23 be open, right?”

Correction. FTP is port 21.. Telnet is port 23.

freak3dot said on : August 21st, 2007 at 11:22 am

I had an IT guy just think that I tried to bypass webmonitoring once and he was not happy. BTW, don’t use putty to SSH into your computer at home. SSH can also be used to tunnel through proxy servers, which is what I was accused of.

freak3dot

Tom said on : September 2nd, 2007 at 3:22 am

Wanted to say thank you. I was able to track a remote vnc on my computer thanks to you. I thought my friend was monitoring me it turned out to be true. I now know he was watching me in real time. Also HE is more than likely a reason I was canned from my job. I confronted him but claims I’m paranoid. I have saved your info for future reference and will advise all my friends of your info. I think you should write more stuff on administration passwords/guest users on one’s computer. You see we get friends to do installs we don’t know what they are doing.

Thanks

simonje said on : September 8th, 2007 at 5:36 am

Haha. Information is good but if really care about security would you not use Microsoft in first place? Thanks to it darkhats have so many zombie networks now need GUI tools to manage huge supercomputer clusters! Trojans have not handy system tray clues either! Anyway even Sony can install root kits now ok.

At work, microsoft has tools for your admin to watch and control the PC quietly (and remember also NSA backdoor still). Your work neighbor can just look over the shoulder.

At home, aircrack your wireless keys in 10 mins – some longer for WPA. Swap your router ESSID for mine and I can sniff all you p0rn traffic and bank account from my car!

Even if you not connected to network monitor can be read thru a wall.

Best thing is not to worry and be just good boy and girls.

merv said on : September 12th, 2007 at 7:14 pm

Quick facts. 1 – Wrote a kind of story 10 years ago and due to approach to give evidence at the Cole Inquirey into the AWB in Australia 12 months ago, decided to get the story out. 2 – Techno mate of mine threw up this website for me and after 6 months pulled most of the content off due to approach by production company to put it into print and also do a doco. 3 – Problem was I had 2,500 people on my mailing list by then, so I’ve left up a few pages until everything comes out in December. BIG POINT number 4 – My office computer, home computer, laptop and even phones have been causing me grief. My ip account shows uploads of 300 + meg a day, when I average 2 meg. I’ve cleaned them all out twice. 5 – I use visual route to trace site hits now and then, and a literally get 30 a day from big brother – which is fascinating in itself. I never placed all content on the net, but backraces are revealing knowledge of material obviously sucked off my computers. 5 – lately the Chinese are really hitting the site a lot.

I really think these guys can just bypass any damn firewall they like. NSA chip or not.

brady said on : September 21st, 2007 at 8:44 pm

port 23 is not ftp, it’s telnet.

firefly said on : December 19th, 2007 at 1:04 pm

I’m not a technical person and am only interested to know a little about IT. This article is really interesting & easy to understand but, GOSH, this is scary to think that anyone can peep in my computer.

cyberx said on : December 23rd, 2007 at 2:52 pm

i do not believe it was the author’s intention to provide a detailed network and computer security manual on how to detect intrusions. however, maybe it should be noted that there are several basic methods of access: 1) if i can touch your computer, you are hacked!, 2) if you access the internet 4 email or just surfing, your material are on somebody else’s computer, 3) if i have line of sight of your keyboard, i can steal your passwords > use video like in atm frauds. On the 1st mentioned category: i can duplicate you hard drive and recover all your deleted stuff and take my time to decrypt passwords and contents. i can attach a hardware keylogger to steal all your keystrokes, incl passwords. over and above the nice tools i can install and settings i can change on your system, i can run a few freeby password stealers and be off in less that 1-min with all your access codes, internet history, etc! what is the solution? be a good boy and dont do naughty things and use industry approved software tools to protect sensitive data. cyberx

800HighTech said on : January 19th, 2008 at 1:58 pm

a great logical way to keep your own eyes on your PC……keep up the good work…

Security Guy said on : February 25th, 2008 at 11:48 am

?? are you serious man? This is such a noob approach. What if your work installs the application as a service, or runs it as system?? The best way to hide your traffic is through a VPN like hamachi, and ssh.

charpays said on : March 1st, 2008 at 1:57 am

Umm…. People amaze me of course are lives are being monitored.. We have always been watched closely by nerds geeks techys the goverment terrosist perverts, I’ts easy to hack someones system I know that all you older folks think that were spy free, WAKE UP! just better hope you don’t piss off any nerds in cyberspace… dont use the computer at WORK AT ALL!!!! NOT for personal use, because they can recorder all user names and passwords, record the information and use it against you or worse fire you. OF COURSE THEY WIL KNOW IF YOU BYPASSED THIER SETTINGS, you don’t know if theyre watching you in real time or just recording what you do , you dont know and I would not take the risk… I seen a woman at the bank sending and receiving personal emails on the bank computer, not smart , not smart at all.

robin said on : March 7th, 2008 at 5:30 am

dear
i visited this web first time & i glad to say that my searching is over. i like this web very much & i forward the link to my all friends

now to the point i want to be a security officer who restrict the persons who hack web or e-mail contain.
so i have to know how this things happen.will u teach me how to hack and restrict web or e-mail contain(passwords)??

i will wait for ur reply

good bye

Margaret said on : March 19th, 2008 at 3:24 pm

I receive e-mails from good friends, yet they sometimes don’t designate me in the TO: Line, use Un-Known Reciepient! Is this for a reason of privacy or what?
Thank You.

basic said on : April 4th, 2008 at 4:57 am

well i just want to know how or if some one can go in my pc if i use thier wireless connection..and if so how can i do sumthing about it .. PLEASE HELP >>>>ASAP ASAP

Mary said on : May 6th, 2008 at 3:56 am

I’m concerned that my “live-in” is tracking me. We have Verizon FIOS and are networked. I have firewall running but I heard his computer working last night when he had been in bed for hours and I was doing internet searches…any ideas?

akishore said on : May 6th, 2008 at 7:17 pm

Basic, if you are using someone else’s wireless connection, then you are always at risk because you’re on the same network as they are. There are too many ways for them to access your computer to write about here, but it’s rare unless that person is computer savvy.

Mary – What do you mean by tracking you? Are you talking about tracking your Internet activity? That is possible if they were able to use your computer. I would not worry about their computer running, that might be something else. To snoop on someone’s searches, they need to have software installed on YOUR computer, so make sure it’s locked when you are not around.

bert said on : May 14th, 2008 at 4:01 pm

Be aware of this then:
http://www.snoopstick.com/ ,undetectable if you believe their words.

Jennifer said on : June 6th, 2008 at 6:23 am

I created a nice document to track info and someone in the IT dept hacked my comp, gave it to management and took the credit for it. The doc was nothing, stupid little spreadsheet but it kinda bugs me that someone has the audacity to do that. especially IT who is watching everything you do to make sure you’re doing your job.

how do I create the locked folders?

steven mashal said on : June 17th, 2008 at 8:01 am

How ca i detect if someone has access to my mails via my email adress password.

d said on : June 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 pm

How can you tell if a significant other has placed a monitoring software on your PC? I know it is an odd question but I am getting a lot of questions that are a little too out of the blue. Thanks in advance for the help.

anthony said on : June 25th, 2008 at 4:02 pm

I THINK SOMEONE IS SPYING ON ME THREW COMPUTERS CAMS, CAN YOU TELL ME WHERE THIS COULD BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PLEASE SEND BACK ANSWER TO anthonyegooding@hotmail.com
very important

diane said on : June 28th, 2008 at 8:12 am

Was wondering if anyone can help by explaining something.. Can anyone one put some kind of software on your computer without you knowing… Can co-workers plant something in your computer to take control of your mouse while you are working? Can they somehow speed up your computer? I have never before experienced it until last year and this year… I believe some co-workers are messing with me because when something is not working right, I hear snickers. I have informed a supervisor and they tell me there is no way that anyone can control it… I truely don’t believe that and was wondering if you can help me so that I can perform my work…It does get frustrating and it happens everyday.. I have changed passwords but they seem to get into my computer and control my typing and my mouse…I don’t know much about computers at all and need some advise on how to resolve it… I had an issue last year that arrived and was told I was paranoyd… I know that’s not true and I believe my co-workers are trying hard to get rid of me… Please help me!

Deanne said on : July 5th, 2008 at 9:44 am

Question….can a person install a program to monitor my computer by just me opening an email from them? And if possible would they be able to create chats or emails from my computer? Thanks for your response.

Casandra said on : July 19th, 2008 at 1:09 am

Is there no program that I can just install on my computer & that takes care of the spying business? All these technical terms are too much for a poor soul like me but I’m so depressed case I know I’m being watched.

Kelly said on : August 9th, 2008 at 11:58 am

I’m wondering how to tell if my computer is emailing my passwords and other info to someone. McAfee found a pws trojan the other day and deleted it, but it had been there for close to two months. I scanned all my files and everything was good. Then several days later it found a copy in my restore folder. So again I deleted it. I wonder why it took so long to find it and why it didn’t find both at the same time.

Anyway, I use Incredimail as my default mail client. Every so often, when I open it, it says Incredimail is not my default mail client. I live alone and no one else uses my computer. This has been going on for several months and I didn’t use to worry about it but now I’m paranoid that the two are related. It happened again this morning. Is this normal? Should I be monitoring my computer with something other than McAfee?

Thanks a lot.

JB said on : August 14th, 2008 at 1:00 am

Computer monitoring is in my opinion an invasion of privacy unless sanctioned by a law enforcement agency. IN NZ It is illegal to record a phone conversation without legal authority or the other parties consent. Following this line of thought therefore what is the difference. – Remember unless a forensic copy of your hard drive is taken, any so called evidence can and would likely be be thrown out of court. Don’t use work computer for anything else but work.

NetVizor said on : August 14th, 2008 at 4:09 am

And can the tool block the email spying software?

bryan said on : August 15th, 2008 at 9:21 pm

People should be aware that many adult sites which allow you to interact with the models can see your files and even your name. One site ,mentioned the name of the person who owned the computer and his name is preety unusual. Stay away from interactive sites with cams even if you don’t have or use a cam they can see you, One site made fun of something on his machine that they could not have possiably have guessed at unless they can clearly see it probably all live chat including ebay and any company.When you install active x for youtube or anyhting like that you are being watched. don’t allow cookies or anything. when you make it inconvient for them by keeping your internet securiyt up to the top even if you can.t download anything they won’t see you so easily

X said on : September 11th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

also check you W-lan if it’s encrypted (and a WEP encryption (the thing with a 13-diggit-pass) is NOT secure, it’s possible to crack it in less than 2 min)

richard said on : September 16th, 2008 at 2:53 am

Hi,
How would I find out if someone has install one of those spying or monitoring program in my PC. I suspect that the program is called System Surveillance Pro 5.5. This particular program seems to be able to send via email all my activities I do with my PC (emails, website opened, keystrokes, screenshots)etc. Thank you so much for the help.

Cookie Ozuna said on : October 7th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

I have been a victim of a hacker who made a copy of my apartment key and installed a “I Spy” in my computer. I detected it because my emails were read before I even had a chance to open them. I was able to follow your instruction but when I go to tool, I can not locate any email accounts. Maybe I am looking the wrong way, can you help? I believe that the “I spy” is still there because I was just in a site and a message came up informing me that it was detected. Another think, would you recommend that I take my PC to a Best Buy and have it checked. Please advise. Thank you.

james_villar2001@yahoo.com said on : October 10th, 2008 at 7:46 pm

thanks for the info guys…

olga said on : October 20th, 2008 at 2:15 am

Today I noticed that while I was checking and responding to an email on yahoo that my mouse began to move on the page without me actually touching it. This surprised me!!

I have a person who has had complete access to my computer by way of setting it all up-adding/deleting programs–i am not a computer techie and therefore have no idea about a lot of things when it comes to computers. I just want to know if there is any way to find out if this person is ableto log onto my computer at the same time as me.

Also, a few months ago when I was having problems with my computer and he was trying to fix it he was able to figure out my password to yahoo without me having given it to him–he said he just figured it out but I was a little suspicious and changed my password. HOw easy is this to do?
My friend informed me today that if he has my IP number that it is possible for him to log onto my computer when I am on. Please tell me if I can prove this and how do i get back my privacy?
I have windows xp…that he installed for me.

Remote-Spy-Software said on : October 20th, 2008 at 10:42 am

Can you block spytech reatime remote spy with the above methods?

jay said on : November 14th, 2008 at 7:25 pm

Hi guys

I share a network connection with my older brother who is the admin of the whole network..in which my younger brother uses is well…

I feel like i been spyed on dont no why just have that feeling….i dont trust him….

i installed spybot….i have firewall….i have eset security virus scanner….

i know he knows when im online….all he does is type the ip address in the web browser and a whole selection comes up…i only court a eye on it……

anyways when i go to show me all network folders on this computer i have personal folders that come up…and i cant delete them…..

is there anyway of findout if his spying on me…..i just like to have my feedom..as i also work from home its not nice knowing you are being watched……………….

Phil said on : November 15th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

This was an extreamly good review best one ive read on the net. It turned out that my my neighbour was monitoring my computer. I had this feeling because it always use to go slow and sometimes the mouse jerked and did its own thing. Must have been him accidently taking control. Anyway thanks very much. Could you also do a review on the opposite. Have you got any monitoring software that you would reccomend that is either free or fairly cheap. Thanks Phil

Tanya said on : January 17th, 2009 at 2:28 pm

I checked my computer and noticed an icon in the task manager that said UPnP. So, I clicked on it to see what it was and a dialog box came up displaying different connections…it looked like something you would see under Network Connections or My Computer dialog box. As this dialog box displays I notice a connection with the same name of a guy that works in the office…the very one I thought might have installed something on the computer. However, as quick as a flash, the dialog box changes to display completely different information. I look at the task manager and the UPnP icon is no longer there. What does this mean? What do I do?

Veronica said on : January 29th, 2009 at 1:52 am

I’m not worked about who is watching me, I just concerned that while I am working in some applications on my computer for my job it appears that my computer is constantly locking up. Things that I type suddenly disappear, the pointer moves when I haven’t moved it. I am concerned this is a method of harrassment to an extent. Are you aware of similar activities reported in the past?

Lawrence said on : January 31st, 2009 at 12:27 pm

Should I have an exception in my Windows Vista Firewall checked called SCMP? I can’t seem to find out anything about it.

Nervous Wreck said on : February 12th, 2009 at 4:54 pm

So this is good for the corporate world, but what about finding out if your mate is spying on you. Will these methods work with the new monitoring software that is out now b/c I realize this was originally posted a couple of years ago?

rebecca said on : February 25th, 2009 at 8:56 am

how do i know if someone is logging my conversations through messenger?

autumnrain said on : March 2nd, 2009 at 10:26 pm

Once this guy told me that he installed something on my computer by hacking into it, and that he was spying on me from his house. He said he had logs of all my chats and what not. He then said sorry and took it all back, and was nice again. Recently, he go angry at me again. I now have a MAC but is it possible for someone with a PC to spy on someone with a MAC? I don’t have much security on this.

In a Divorce said on : April 25th, 2009 at 10:47 am

Hi, I am currently in divorce proceedings with my husband who is a network engineer who works for a large corporation so to speak and is in charge of their security and networking issues. I believe that he was cheating on me with several of his female co-workers and the divorce is not final yet and he has already moved one of his ex’s into our home. He would constantly tell me where I was at when we were together even if I just went for a drive to get away from it all and no one knew where I was.

My cell phones I use a prepaid nokia and samsung and try to change them as often as I can. I believe that he is currently monitoring me now. How can I protect my privacy?? Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED!! When I tell my friends what he is doing they dismiss it as not possible. I have helped him work on several projects in the past for his employer and I know that it is so totally possible and easy for him to do.

I am not very technical but I am intelligent and I do learn very quickly. The average “Joe” would never believe how someone with technical abilities can mess with someone’s life. I Really Need Someone to Help me with this that Knows what they are doing and what I am talking about.

zura said on : May 6th, 2009 at 11:39 pm

Oh, wow I can’t leave this website. My eyes just keep reading your articles, Aseem. Good job!

Michelle said on : June 30th, 2009 at 6:05 pm

My employer intentionally put softactivity monitoring software on my machine and others. I found where I could uninstall it however it is password protected. I can’t find the exact process to end it. I also found where all the screen shots are stored on the client machine. Spybot doesn’t detect it and neither does malwarebytes. How can I uninstall it and get rid of it – I can put it back when I’m done checking my personal bank account on my break which I think my boss has no business seeing my bank balance. Yes I can refrain from checking during business hours but it’s the principal of the thing.

Jenna Krupa said on : July 15th, 2009 at 10:54 pm

I just found out today that my dad was having his friend watch my computer for him, and I didn’t know what to do because I was having trouble with spyware even before that, and then I found this article. Using this article, I was able to go to Control Panel, then Windows Firewall where I found weird software and blocked it. Thank you for your helpful article!

Robin said on : August 10th, 2009 at 7:59 am

Good information for people being monitored.

But how to monitor emails? I want to monitor my employees emails for security reasons. Is there a free solution?

Wonderin said on : August 19th, 2009 at 8:01 pm

mkay. i was wondering if universities monitor personal emails like they do in the corporate world. i understand school email, but again, i was wondering if say my yahoo mail could be read? if so, is there anyway i can change that? bc sometimes my boyfriend can send some raunchy emails and i don’t exactly want everyone to know that! thanks!

DOMINIC said on : August 20th, 2009 at 10:22 pm

Security Shield 2009 also done this job well!!!!

Key Features : Virus, Spyware and Adware Protection;Personal Firewall;Automatic Daily Updates;Parental Control;Root-Kit Detection;Spam Filter.

111download.com/product/security-shield-2009-total-internet-security.html

Jagdish said on : August 23rd, 2009 at 12:31 am

How can I detect if someone has access to my mails via my email adress password.And can I detect when and where(place) he made access to my account? Can I know the servers adress, phone number via which the access has been done.

Robie said on : August 25th, 2009 at 9:30 pm

Thanks for all the tips and advice about what to look for when we are trying to find out if our computer is being monitored, etc. Very, Very good information. I appreciate you sharing your advice with everyone.

Regards, LR in TN.

dikatsuj said on : August 27th, 2009 at 3:44 am

ok, i have a real problem. recently my father has been monitoring my network acess and its gotten to the point where he will actually take control of my keyboard and mouse while im on AIM and actually talk to my friends while he is at work. he work for a communication company called cavium. he picked up lots of info and how to on network monitoring. i now have to walk to the public library just to get some privacy to so much as check my email. i just need to know how i can confirm it and end it.

Bob Smith said on : October 11th, 2009 at 10:46 pm

I was on facebook chatting with some one and seemed to have gotten into my files. She seem to know things about me that I didn’t tell her. Could she have done this and how?
How do I prevent this from happening again and do the same back to her, how can I do that?

JAM said on : October 14th, 2009 at 8:29 pm

thank you so much for the information. However, what if the person you don’t trust is on the same network and owns the router?

Dave said on : October 16th, 2009 at 10:36 am

A few useful tips.

The built-in remote desktop can allow another user to monitor your computer WITHOUT locking you out, and even when it does lock you out it only tells you your own username.

Sine said on : December 2nd, 2009 at 8:36 pm

Useful tips! However it’s too complicated for some who are computer illiterate. We apply the employee monitoring software in our company. It can record all the online activites of staff.

pc-remote-monitoring.com

bee said on : December 6th, 2009 at 10:03 am

Hi, am so glad to read your tips. I was able to track down if someone is connected to my computer by clicking altogether SHIFT,CTRL and ESC …I actually saw all my names as a username but there were 2 image name with anonymous usernames are they could be my intruders? Because it happened many times to me that my printer is processing alone even without me touching it. If they could be my possible intruders what can I do to remove them away … I have my wireless network set up to WEP. Could you help me a tip how to secure WPA with my windows vista? Hope you can be of help … thanks ..

bee said on : December 6th, 2009 at 10:22 am

Hi, it’s me again as an addtional to my first comment can you tell me what is this csrss.exe? This is one of the two image name with anonymous username I saw in my Task Manager? As I search it came upon to me that this is like a trojan who allows attackers to connect to a computer and steal passwords and so on and on. How to delete it or is it enough to delete it to keep me away from intruders? Please help … Im really experiencing lots of weird troubles in my computer despite I have my anti-virus, firewall on and WEP secured. Thanks …

Robin Mitra said on : December 7th, 2009 at 9:10 am

Hi Bee

I dont know much about csrss.exe but heres how to setup WPA.

First, you have to log into your router administration page. Mostly, it has network address of 192.168.1.1 and can be accessed from a browser. Enter your login details and look for something like “wireless settings”. There you should be able to select WPA. Select WPA-PSK [TKIP] and enter a LONG passphare. The longer the better. You could even select WPA2 but your hardware has to support it. Mine doesn’t.

After you have setup WPA on your router, you have to connect your computer to it. On Vista, right click on the network status icon in the system tray on task bar and select “connect to a network” and select your network from there. It will ask you to enter the passphrase that you set in the router configuration, enter it and your done!

Ruan said on : December 23rd, 2009 at 11:18 pm

You can disable remote desktop.. Why did you not mention that? My computer > Properties > Remote > uncheck all boxes

@bee:
csrss.exe is part of Cryptographic Services…http://www.theeldergeek.com/cryptographic_services.htm. But csrss can also be a trojan, it really depends where the file is. (windows\system32). That first google search made me laugh.. “this file is a trojan so click here to run a free performance scan to optimise your cpu, RAM, etc.”

Here is the wikipedia version of csrss:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C....._Subsystem

D K said on : January 9th, 2010 at 1:23 am

what if there is no Network connection ?? what if the spy software is running silently in the background recording every click of a key-board and then someone goes into your computer and watches what you I’ve been doing – everything? how do you detect that?!

Sandy said on : January 12th, 2010 at 2:14 pm

I am no longer admin of my computer. I cannot change seetings or delete anything. IT guys can’t either, Its happened to every computer I have had here or at my business. I know someone has been watching me for a very long time and know who has been doing it. A manager I fired because I found out he was stealing from me and had opened an office just like mine. No one beleived me at the police dept. FBI , Ive lost millions of dollars in revenue because he has stolen my clients from me my leads etc…. I am so lost and no one to turn to for help. Who do I go to to have check out my computers that knows what you are talking about. All the things mentioned in here I have had on or done to my computers. They all say Im crazy .

Robin Mitra said on : January 12th, 2010 at 7:00 pm

@Sandy: Thats really sad to hear. Hope you get back to business soon mate! And this time, don’t let an employee take control over everything.

Mouse said on : January 17th, 2010 at 2:24 pm

Is there software that you can install on your computer that tracks any other program installs silently? Thanks.

C.M. said on : January 21st, 2010 at 8:24 am

To SANDY:

I’ve been in a situation similar to you. The people who are saying you are crazy is either lying to you and knows you’re not crazy, or they are so naive and computer illiterate.

The best advice I can give you is to start reading and learning on your own how to deal with the problem. Read all you can find on the subject. Sometimes, you can’t trust no one but yourself….and have to just roll-up-your-sleeves and do it yourself. You’ll need a good website or book that is a “dictionary of computer terms” to keep by your side as you read….to help understand what you are reading. But you can do it.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon. But it is a headache. Reading, determination, and lots of “how-to” websites will take you a long way. By the way, you are not crazy. Best wishes.

Stephen said on : January 25th, 2010 at 1:51 am

I found your blog on google and read about 2 of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the great work Look forward to reading more from you in the future. With all best wishes

Simas6 said on : February 4th, 2010 at 8:25 am

It was really very very usefull, thanks. But I have a problem. When I get to Control Panel – FireWall – Exceptions, I see the programs like Desktop Remote and RemoteDesktopVerbindung also Remoteunterstützung, I can uncheck it but it doesn’t let to block it and when I try to uninstall from the Start-Menu bar, it says “Waiting for confirmation from the main user”. What can I do and what is the problem? I know who is the user. It’s my aunt, I use her Lap-Top for years, so she has it. She lives just one floor down to me. Anyway. Try to e-mail me, thank you. h.haris7@gmail.com

QUIZ said on : February 4th, 2010 at 7:41 pm

Can my company see the search that i have done on my personal laptop using thier internet in the office? also does it get logged or in history,, how long does that last?

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