I think I might have a remote access Trojan (RAT) on my computer. My accounts were hacked and my PC has been freezing consistently. It seems like all the issues were related to the accounts I accessed on my computer. After I set up a DNS and deleted all my passwords from the PC, the problems stopped. Is there any way to confirm that the RAT is really gone without having to wipe my drive? I have a lot of important work files on my PC.
2 Answers
Reinstalling Windows using a USB stick might be your best bet if you suspect a RAT. Everything else you try will likely be ineffective until you do that.
Changing your passwords and setting up a DNS won’t help if there's a RAT still on your system. You may need to wipe your drive and reinstall the operating system. Remember, if a RAT is active, any password changes you make just send your new passwords to the attacker, so you have to be sure to do a clean install before changing them again.
I used a different device on another network to change my passwords, but I'm still nervous about this.
But how does that work? I thought RATs needed internet access to operate.