GilbertsGrape

I have a friend that is concerned that someone has put a tracking program on their PC that logs what tehy do on their PC interent e-mail etc.

is there any way she can find out?

Thanks,
Grape

Tommy Boomfiger

try sending out a unique email to someone that contains a strange word. like have her send the word jabberwockey to you, then do a search for a file that contains the word jabberwockey. this wont always work because many of the programs that spy like that encrypt the logs they take. also do a search for any files created or modified in the last few minutes or the last hour. again, this wont always work because programs will change the dates to make it harder to find. make sure she has some kind of firewall, whether its a hardware or software one. some logging programs can be configured to upload data to an ftp somewhere and delete the evidence. so if shes using zonealarm and gets a popup saying that iexplorer.exe is trying to transmit, but you know that the real internet explorer is already configured to have outside access, you got something bad in there.

some of those programs show up on virus scanners and spyware scanners as a trojan or malware. i used one once on my computer to see if someone who wasnt supposed to use it was using it and it would show up in norton every time. so first try that. if the person knows this about the virus scanner, (s)he can configure the VS to ignore those files. double check the VS config to make sure that isnt the case. also check the physical connections on the computer. there are devices that you can plug in betweent the keyboard and motherboard that can trap every keypress. to my knowledge these are transparent to the OS so there arent any scanners that can pick this up. while youre at it check all the rest of the connections for something that shouldnt be there.

if that doesnt bring anything up you could go search every folder and subfolder for a suspicous looking file or folder. often times you can get some pretty inconspicuous filenames like system.exe in folder like /windows/system32. the only way to be reletively sure would be to do a low level format and reinstall the system with something difficult like NTFS and make every single account use a password.

if this is in her house, shes probably not going to have a secure room where she can put the computer. so you might want to put some kind of physical locks on the box and power switch.

you should know that if someone wanted to put something on there again it wouldnt be impossible even with ntfs. but of all the file systems i know of, ntfs would take the longest, which wont even take that long. the more things you do, the harder it will be for someone to use your own pc to spy on you. it just depends on how hard you are willing to make it for them.

GilbertsGrape

thank you i will pass that inforamtion on to her

GilbertsGrape

ok i passed this information on to her now she wants to tarck him anyone know of a free one of these programs or a cheap one?

Jeffbx

Where are these machines & who is she tracking?

If they're on the same network she's better off tracking the network traffic than his computer... there's no way to trace that.

GilbertsGrape

it is one PC that they both use it is an un happly married couple and they both suspect each other of doing certin things online ..... and now this gal wants to find out what her hubby is doing online

Cubsfan

So she was mad that her husband was doing it, so now she wants to?

GilbertsGrape

yep and both suspect each other of cheating on the other ..... .not too good i know .....

Hiro

Personally, I wouldn't be encouraging this behavior.

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-Corsec-

mcs328

Oi. I guess you can check what websites in Internet Explorer History and the temp Internet Explorer files have been accessed. It's probably the most obvious thing to do and the most easy to delete.

What a can of worms though.

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cheapchinese

isn't this illegal without her consent?

GilbertsGrape

the pc is jointly owned mainly hers i guess so i dont think that is an issue