HACKERS CAN REMOTE CONTROL YOUR COMPUTER

To gain access to my computer, I have a very difficult password and a picture password to enter my computer.  I have McAfee and Malwarebites software installed to catch viruses, trojans, worms, and other malware to ward off computer problems.

In spite of having security software in place, I recently had a computer problem that I could not straighten out myself, and I had to pay some support people to clean up my computer.  This was the first time I became aware that my computer could be taken over by someone from a remote location.  It was as if the support people were sitting in front of my computer, and I watched them work for three hours to straighten it out.  It was spooky! 

Their ability to gain access to my computer from a remote location intrigued me.  I "googled" this question:  "How can support people take over my computer?"  A lot of possible websites popped up from my search question.  One of them is Teamviewer.com.  This is a company that offers software to legitimate companies to enable employees to remotely access their own company computers from home, or some other remote location, and also to access other employee's computers for "team work."  I would assume that permission is granted by all the computers involved in the company.  However, I am sure this would be a minor obstacle to a hacker.

It wasn't long before I developed another problem with my computer.  I could not access MSN Internet.  I could go through Google to gain access, but the Internet icon would not work, and a lot of my apps use MSN to connect me to the Internet.  I tried a lot of things to restore MSN Internet without success.

Finally, I checked my files and found that I had about eight (8) program files, with recent dates, and began with the word TONG, and I had not downloaded them myself.  It appeared to be programs dealing with children's education and originated from China.  I noticed the dates, and they were installed in my computer about the time I lost the MSN Internet.  I deleted all of them plus some others that I did not want, and magically the MSN Internet reappeared.

These TONG programs would not be classified as malware, is why it was not caught by my security software.  It appears that someone simply installed these programs directly into my computer without my permission.

I am blogging this to warn people to be hyper-viligant to any problems they encounter in their computers.  The hackers have become so smart, I predict that in the near future, we will not be able to use our personal computers.