Wife's PC got hacked, now what?!

[SumJongGuy]

Who still stores passwords in google???

Almost everybody. on Android/PC.

https://support.google.com/accounts/...form%3DAndroid

[RShea]

^this!

They were most likely in it for bank account access and not installing viruses

But the viruses or trojans are the first step many times to get to passwords, financial accounts, etc. - things like key stroke recorder or back door access that can be used to monitor the PC use.

[riser4]

But the viruses or trojans are the first step many times to get to passwords, financial accounts, etc. - things like key stroke recorder or back door access that can be used to monitor the PC use.

Or, as i Iaid out, get let into Gmail, which they were apparently in the process of. Then they don't need key strokes.

[riser4]

Almost everybody. on Android/PC.

https://support.google.com/accounts/...form%3DAndroid

I stopped doing that years ago.

[Thaleia]

This is actually sort of serious and worth revisiting. Go double check to make sure additional recovery methods weren't set up. Pronto. Remove them stat. Check the whole account settings. Getting control of an email account and knowing the cell phone number can lead to a SIM hack and is used to gain control of bank accounts. For this reason, whenever possible don't use SMS for 2FA on bank accounts. And I highly advise having your bank account and other sensitive financial accounts use a secure email service that you pay for, not Google. Don't use that email for anything else, including car dealer loans or really anything that is not strictly with the bank. Switch immediately. Maintain strict hygiene with that email account.

Can you expand a bit on the 'additional recovery methods' bit? Looking at Recovery Tool in Control panel and only see options to create a recovery drive or restore to a previous restore point (there are none currently).

Also the whole 2FA via SIM is very eye opening - they have her mobile number obviously since she called them.. Yikes. If we update our 2FA to new secure emails, I'm assuming we're (relatively) safe at that point, as far as the banking related threats go?

Also worth mentioning - when I'm logged in as her, looking at google password manager, it won't display the actual passwords with out inputting her PIN, which (of course lol) she forgets so she wouldn't have been able to provide it over the phone. Is that a positive by any chance or could they have accessed by some other backdoor method?

[riser4]

Can you expand a bit on the 'additional recovery methods' bit? Looking at Recovery Tool in Control panel and only see options to create a recovery drive or restore to a previous restore point (there are none currently).

Also the whole 2FA via SIM is very eye opening - they have her mobile number obviously since she called them.. Yikes. If we update our 2FA to new secure emails, I'm assuming we're (relatively) safe at that point, as far as the banking related threats go?

Also worth mentioning - when I'm logged in as her, looking at google password manager, it won't display the actual passwords with out inputting her PIN, which (of course lol) she forgets so she wouldn't have been able to provide it over the phone. Is that a positive by any chance or could they have accessed by some other backdoor method?

I was talking about Google settings, not windows recovery. It's possible to add recovery emails and methods for lost Google password. And hopefully if you are poking around in that computer, you have made sure it can't connect the Internet.

[Thaleia]

Got it thanks, already done.

[SumJongGuy]

Also worth mentioning - when I'm logged in as her, looking at google password manager, it won't display the actual passwords with out inputting her PIN, which (of course lol) she forgets so she wouldn't have been able to provide it over the phone. Is that a positive by any chance or could they have accessed by some other backdoor method?

If they had access to her email (password) or cloned her cell phone they could reset her Google PIN to access the account settings and stored passwords. You'll know of they did that because you'd also see the email/text 2FA they would be using to try and change her Google password.

Just watch your banks and credit card accounts like a hawk for a few weeks to be sure..

[up an down]

Do you actually use it for stuff? I find 95% of people just use their home PC to surf the internet. I use a $200 Chromebook at home. Not a lot of hacking going on on that OS. I get MS 365 from work for free, but I think it's like $99 a year. I'm done with PCs.

+1