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I got scammed and hacked. The scammers said they were from Microsoft and my computer had a virus and they were going to install some antivirus software on my computer and clean the virus for me. So I let them remotely connect to my computer for more than an hour!

My router was using the default password.

People suggest that the best way is to factory reset the router, and then reset all the devices using the network.

I'm getting a new router so the reset router part is solved.

My further question is, there are 9 devices in my house: 2 desktops, 2 laptops, 1 iPhone, 1 iPad, 1 Android phone, 2 Android tablets. Do I need to reset all of those devices? Would there be a problem if I leave one or two of the devices not reset? Would the hacker get into my network again through the one device that's not reset?

One of the desktops is my son's. And it's all his homework and games. No important login info there. Can I leave this one not reset? And another laptop my mom just use for browsing and simple stuff. Can I leave this one not reset as well?

Is it not necessary to reset the iPhone and iPad? One of the Android tablets seems like it has adware on it, ads popping up all the time.

schroeder
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kekehuang11
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3 Answers3

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Would there be a problem if I leave one or two of the devices not reset? Would the hacker get into my network again through the one device that's not reset?

Facts

A Malicious guy accessed your home network for more than an hour, you didn't know exactly what happened there, but for some reasons, you assumed that the router has been compromised.

Answer

Nuke it from orbit.

Wipe all your devices. Within one hour, a malicious person can do some tremendous damages.

msanford
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Baptiste
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You are probably safe on iPhone and iPad but they may access your data and passwords using saved passwords on your system.

In my experience, you'd better backup everything first.

  • Reset all of your passwords
  • Install some smart security antivirus
  • Reset your router firmware and reconfig it NO DEFAULT PASSWORD
  • Look how you let them connect to you remotely, remove that software, etc.
  • Restoring Windows is a good idea, too. It will not cause that much data loss and it's kind of a great idea after backup and before other things.

It's better to do all these things offline because connected attackers may see you are changing things and they might try to be more creative.

And the last thing to do is to submit a crime report (Don't let others fall into the same hole as you did).

schroeder
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M at
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To add to Mahdi's great advice, also be sure you run "updates" on ALL of your devices - including the firmware on your router(s). The latest Wanna Cry ransomware was successful because much of the world fails to update their computers. Do that, and what Mahdi said, and install an antivirus (AND SCAN EACH PC WITH IT) and you'll be in good shape. AVG is free and has a great product.

Tom
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