I had a really rough day. I woke up to an email saying someone in Thailand accessed my Microsoft account, so I immediately changed my password. Later, a friend told me that my Instagram and Discord accounts were sending her scam messages. It turns out I downloaded a suspicious file yesterday that gave my PC a virus, specifically RiskWare.KMS, Trojan.HijackLoader, and PUP.Optional.Bundle.Installer. I used MalwareBytes to remove everything and changed my passwords on the hacked accounts and my Google account. Now I'm feeling overwhelmed and scared about what to do next. This is a first for me, so any advice would be appreciated!
3 Answers
Make sure to check out the wiki here for a complete guide on doing a clean reinstall of Windows. Use another device to change all your passwords to secure, unique ones. If you haven't started using a password manager, now's a great time to do it. Also, enable two-factor authentication on all your accounts and check your security settings to log out of any unknown devices.
My suggestion would be to use a USB stick to help with your computer. Buy two USB sticks—one with at least 64 GB. Install a portable version of Windows on one stick, boot from it, and save all your important files to the second stick. After that, format the first USB and create a Windows install media. You can then erase your computer entirely and install a clean version of Windows. Just remember not to log back into any hacked accounts after doing this!
This sounds complicated! Do I really need to do all this if I've already deleted the malicious files?
I totally get what you're going through. I had my Google account hacked before, and changing your password is a good step. Once you've done that, the hackers shouldn't be able to access your account anymore. Just make sure to pay attention to any suspicious activity and keep an eye on your other accounts too!
Thank you for the advice!