Hacked!

I am still doing some computer consulting on the side and one of my clients called me yesterday in a panic and told me that one of the computers in her office had been hacked. She sat down at her desk and her mouse was moving around, programs were opening and closing and some one appeared to be going through her email.

My client has a business that could make her a target for identity theft. To compound the fear, she just fired someone and the circumstances were not friendly. Even further, her virus definition files were out of date by about 3 weeks because her Norton subscription expired.

I couldn't get to the client until about 8:00 last night and I spent an hour trying to track down where the intrusion might have come from and what was running on the server. Much to my frustration I simply couldn't find any evidence of an intrusion. Since the intruder was controlling her computer during working hours, I figured it wasn't a sophisticated hack.

I finally gave up and went to tell my client that I couldn't find anything. Just as I was about to tell her that, a voice from the ether (not the ethernet) whispered in my ear "wireless mouse."

What? Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, nowwwwwwwww I get it. I mentioned to the client that it could have been someone's wireless mouse might have been interfering with hers. She said, "It's funny that you should mention that. Mindy was having trouble with her wireless mouse this morning. I changed the batteries and it still wasn't working.

It turns out there was no intrusion. We got a good laugh out of it though. I think I'm going to buy her a mouse trap just to be funny.