There is no surefire way to know if your computer has been hacked or tracked in any way by a hacker, other than by making sure you never connect to the internet. However, there are some ways to significantly reduce the likelihood of its security being compromised.
Steps
Step 1. Disconnect your computer from the internet
Step 2. Go to the Control Panel, and open the Uninstall or Remove Programs utility
Uninstall the antivirus program you currently have on your computer (if of course you have a program that suits you, don't follow this step). This will allow you to avoid antivirus conflicts that could make your computer unusable.
Step 3. Make your computer safe
If you already have a complete, up-to-date antivirus suite that includes all three of the following components, skip to step 8. Otherwise, to make your computer safe, you will need to download all of the following that you don't already have.
- Install an antivirus program that offers real-time and heuristic scans; you can try Comodo BoClean and AVG Free
- Install antispyware; try HijackThis and Spybot S&D
Step 4. Install a firewall to replace the weak Windows firewall; ZoneAlarm is a great program
Step 5. Consider using intrusion detection programs
Step 6. Install all required programs
Connect your computer to the internet again, and update them completely.
Step 7. Run antivirus and antispyware scans
If someone has hacked your computer, the programs should detect the malware and at best remove it. Your computer should now be safer.
Step 8. Update your operating system, your antivirus and your antispyware automatically or regularly, at least once a week
You should be able to prevent almost any attack on your computer this way if you use it correctly.
Advice
- Use an alternative browser. Using Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera or any other browser other than "Internet Explorer" as a browser to surf the Internet will allow you to avoid many of the viruses designed for this browser, which is the most used in the world.
- Search your browser for the settings that regulate tracking by sites and limit it to a minimum.
Warnings
- Never install anything you've downloaded without reading the license agreement in full. Many new malware programs are for all intents and purposes legal, because they are hidden or embedded within programs that we download voluntarily and their effects are described in the license agreement. If you notice anything suspicious in the contract, don't install the program. Pay attention to the "I accept" fields when installing a program. Accepting something without reading can compromise the security of your computer and force you to remove programs that you simply could have avoided installing.
- Do not visit websites that are not trustworthy. If you Google something, and a site description has a long list of irrelevant and meaningless words, it is probably a scam site.
- Don't install ActiveX controls from sites you don't trust.
- Do not open email attachments unless you have talked to the sender and are unsure if they are safe files. Just because an email comes to you from a friend doesn't mean their computer isn't infected. Viruses often spread by sending emails to all contacts in the infected computer's address book, without the owner knowing.
- Do not run applications from and do not copy the contents of CDs, USB keys, etc. before checking them with an antivirus. If an infected computer has accessed the data on the device, the data is probably also infected.
