Hey everyone, my mom hasn't used her laptop in over a week, but when she turned it on today, she noticed that the cursor was moving on its own and opening various applications. It seemed like she had to struggle with a potential hacker just to shut it down. She decided to turn off the WiFi router because she's convinced that if the WiFi is back on, the hacker could access our other devices too. I've got a fresh Windows installation ready on a USB drive. I'm wondering, if she keeps the WiFi off, can they control her laptop? She has important files that she wants to save before doing a factory reset. Also, I'm planning to change the WiFi password, but should we be concerned about other devices being at risk if we turn the router back on? How does something like this even happen? She doesn't typically download anything suspicious, just browses Facebook and shopping sites, and I've had an ad blocker installed for her. Is it possible they hacked our WiFi?
5 Answers
Sometimes this stuff can happen if certain remote software gets installed, like Anydesk or TeamViewer. As long as her WiFi is off, you should be safe to reset her system and reinstall Windows.
You don't have to worry about your WiFi/router—they won't access it. However, make sure to keep the laptop offline while you deal with it or they could connect again. It's best to run antivirus scans or go for a full factory reset.
The safest bet is to pull out the hard drive and use an external reader to backup her files to another computer. Just avoid running anything from her laptop directly. Always keep backups elsewhere to prevent data loss like this in the future.
Also, keep an eye on her trackpad—it could just be malfunctioning hardware causing the weird cursor behavior. Definitely check that first to rule it out!
Nope, it was moving around by itself, opening things like Task Manager. Pretty freaky!
You might want to check for any remote access apps on her computer. If something is controlling it, she probably downloaded some software accidentally or authorized something without realizing. Sorry to say, but hackers might have copied her data already.
Got it! I'll go ahead and reset it to be safe.