Signs Your System Has Been Compromised
Users need to be on the alert for signs that your system has been compromised. Let us look at some of the signs. One that often occurs is that icons on the desktop have been moved, or new icons have appeared. If new icons have appeared, and no software has been installed, as far as is known, it is a red flag that the system has been compromised.
Hackers will often install new software when they gain access to a system, to give them further control, or the ability to gather additional information from the system. Most times, there is no obvious trace of this additional software, but many times they are sloppy, and those surprising new icons are an indication.
Icons being moved is often also an indication. This is often due to the hacker going through and clearing those new icons. However, those icons moved some of your old icons when they were installed, and the hacker does not know exactly where the old icons were on the desktop. Or, the icons were subsequently auto-arranged, and are thus not in the location on the desktop that users had moved them to.
Another big indicator is that your system suddenly slows down. The screen may lag when you are typing, or processes that used to take a second or two, now take many seconds, to even minutes. This is due to the system having an increased load, due to the additional software that has been installed, and what it is doing to steal information or use the computing power for other nefarious activity, such as cryptocurrency mining. Cryptocurrency mining is using computing power to unlock cyber currency, such as Bitcoin. This takes a great deal of computing power, cybercriminals are farming this activity out to compromised systems, rather than using their own.
Basically, be alert to any change in the way that your system looks, or responds. While it may be due to legitimate changes, often it is a sign that unwanted people have gained access to your system.
CCS provides IDS products. Contact our Sales Department to discuss the right solution for your operations.
Dave.