Best friend Raiding Computer

[Guest]

Greetings,

My best friend is constantly raiding my computer. He will take files and
send to himself, etc. I have password protected my account, however, he
still finds a way to move around the password and get into my computer.
PLEASE HELP!

 

[Jason]

Greetings,

My best friend is constantly raiding my computer. He will take files and
send to himself, etc. I have password protected my account, however, he
still finds a way to move around the password and get into my computer.
PLEASE HELP!

1. Smack friend soundly about the head and explain that if you do this
again you'll beat the crap out of them.

2. Change your password to something harder to guess

3. 2 will be useless by the way if your running windows 9x

4. Do a complete virus and trojan scan incase your so called friend
installed something that is helping him break into your computer.

5. If 4 finds something repeat the first step.

Jason

 

[Malke]

1. Smack friend soundly about the head and explain that if you do this
again you'll beat the crap out of them.

2. Change your password to something harder to guess

3. 2 will be useless by the way if your running windows 9x

4. Do a complete virus and trojan scan incase your so called friend
installed something that is helping him break into your computer.

5. If 4 finds something repeat the first step.

I like Jason's solutions, but the big piece of information you left out
is "how is your friend getting *into* your computer"? If you really
want help with this, post back with details about your XP Service Pack
level, what access your friend has to the machine (physical or
network), what antivirus and firewall software you are using, etc.

Malke

 

[Treeman]

* Christopher (e-mail address removed):
Greetings,

My best friend is constantly raiding my computer. He will take files
and
send to himself, etc. I have password protected my account, however,
he
still finds a way to move around the password and get into my
computer.
PLEASE HELP!

Jason,
You can also set an administrtive password in the computers bios. The
computer will not boot to XP untill the password is entered.
DON'T FORGET THIS PASSWORD!
Best,
Treeman

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Greetings,

My best friend is constantly raiding my computer. He will take files and
send to himself, etc. I have password protected my account, however, he
still finds a way to move around the password and get into my computer.
PLEASE HELP!

If your "best" friend is so inconsiderate and disrespectful of your
property and privacy, perhaps you should re-examine this alleged
"friendship."

In the meantime, learn to secure your computer.

Have you secured the built-in Administrator account? The standard
security practice is to rename the account, set a strong password on it,
and use it only to create another account for regular use, reserving the
Administrator account as a "back door" in case something corrupts your
regular account(s).

Make sure that a password is required to log on to the computer;
disable any automatic logins. Change your own account's password to
something that your "friend" cannot guess. If your "friend" has an
account on your computer, ensure that it's a limited account.

HOW TO Create and Configure User Accounts in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;279783

Ensure that your hard drive is formatted in the NTFS file system and
use fole/folder permissions to control access to your hard drive.

HOW TO Set, View, Change, or Remove File and Folder Permissions
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;q308418

HOW TO Set, View, Change, or Remove Special Permissions for Files and
Folders
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;[LN];Q308419

HOW TO Set the My Documents Folder as Private in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;298399

Of course, if you have WinXP Pro, you can encrypt the desired
files/folders.

Best Practices for Encrypting File System
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;223316


--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[Guest]

I'd just add that no Windows password is of any great use to stop someone
who knows what they're doing. If faced with a logon-password I'd just boot
with a Knoppix CD.

The BIOS password is a lot more secure becasue your 'friend' would need to
open the case to reset that - If that is likely you can get case padlocks.

(On a laptop, bios passwords are often not user-resettable, and loss of the
password may involve sending the laptop for repair, so in that case be
careful)

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Sun, 1 Jan 2006 06:18:01 -0800, "Christopher"

My best friend is constantly raiding my computer. He will take files and
send to himself, etc. I have password protected my account, however, he
still finds a way to move around the password and get into my computer.

Is he accessing the system locally or remotely?

If you allow physical access, you're screwed, basically. Do not allow
physical access... there are things that will try to protect against
such scenarios, such as passwords etc. and there's a free downloadable
utility to make it easier to blow away all changes on startup,
suitable for "public" (kiosk) PCs, but neither approach is solid.

If he's accessing the PC via network, WiFi or Internet, then so can
any other dork (with the exception of wired LAN, which is back within
the "don't allow physical access" bubble). Your problems are large
indeed, if any dork or bot can access your PC from WiFi or Internet.

---------- ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Don't pay malware vendors - boycott Sony

 

[NoNoBadDog!]

Greetings,

My best friend is constantly raiding my computer. He will take files and
send to himself, etc. I have password protected my account, however, he
still finds a way to move around the password and get into my computer.
PLEASE HELP!

You need to find a new friend.

Bobby