Hi all,
I just want to get some expert advice as to whether I'm as safe as I can be, given the situation, or if I'm still at risk.
Yesterday, I clicked on an email containing a suggested attachment via Dropbox. The email used used a known and trusted sender (it turned out the sender's account was hacked, and the spoof email was sent on to all the other email contacts in the contact book). Coincidentally [though I'm not sure now] I was talking about this sender 24 hours prior, and so I didn't think the email being sent to me was 'spam' as I 'assumed' that sender was contacts after my initial conversation about them. Anyway, I checked the sender email, which appeared to be an official 'no reply' email from Dropbox (I won't post it here) - And then the contents of the email contains the senders email, which was genuine.
So all of this led me to trust the email and click the link. The link then opened a new tab, and loaded an Outlooks 'login' landing page. Due to having multiple accounts, I had to select which one I wanted to use to login, which was a usual landing page I see when I select different email accounts.
It then asked for a password, to login, which I provided. The page then updated, but loaded with an error message, saying there was a problem opening the file, and to try again in 5 minutes. At this point, I closed the page, and went to email the sender (direct and separately) to verify it was them.
I later noticed I had a PDF document downloaded in my downloads, which I knew then wasn't right.
During the time I clicked to the time I took action, it was 2 hours.
The actions I proceeded to take were to delete the PDF (without clicking or opening it), and deleted it from the recycle bin. I then deleted the email from my inbox. I then proceeded to log out of things connected to that email address, and I changed the password (using my phone which was not the 'potentially compromised' device originally used). I then checked the email settings to ensure no re-directs, etc. I then scanned the laptop with Windows Defender (as I did not have anti-virus from third-party firms at the time), which showed no issues. I then purchased 3 anti-virus trials with TotalAV, Norton, and Bitdefender. I scanned using all three, and cleaned up the PC at the same time. Nothing was detected.
I have scanned a few more times since, with no recorded issues. I've also seen no issues so far on the laptop, nor other services I used connected to my email address.
I would like to know if my data is safe, my laptop is still able to be used, and if it was 2 hours before I actioned anything, would anything have been sent to bad actors by then? Would anti-virus or scans found problems if anything had downloaded onto my computer? Is it possible I've changed passwords in time, and got lucky?
Thanks everyone!
I just want to get some expert advice as to whether I'm as safe as I can be, given the situation, or if I'm still at risk.
Yesterday, I clicked on an email containing a suggested attachment via Dropbox. The email used used a known and trusted sender (it turned out the sender's account was hacked, and the spoof email was sent on to all the other email contacts in the contact book). Coincidentally [though I'm not sure now] I was talking about this sender 24 hours prior, and so I didn't think the email being sent to me was 'spam' as I 'assumed' that sender was contacts after my initial conversation about them. Anyway, I checked the sender email, which appeared to be an official 'no reply' email from Dropbox (I won't post it here) - And then the contents of the email contains the senders email, which was genuine.
So all of this led me to trust the email and click the link. The link then opened a new tab, and loaded an Outlooks 'login' landing page. Due to having multiple accounts, I had to select which one I wanted to use to login, which was a usual landing page I see when I select different email accounts.
It then asked for a password, to login, which I provided. The page then updated, but loaded with an error message, saying there was a problem opening the file, and to try again in 5 minutes. At this point, I closed the page, and went to email the sender (direct and separately) to verify it was them.
I later noticed I had a PDF document downloaded in my downloads, which I knew then wasn't right.
During the time I clicked to the time I took action, it was 2 hours.
The actions I proceeded to take were to delete the PDF (without clicking or opening it), and deleted it from the recycle bin. I then deleted the email from my inbox. I then proceeded to log out of things connected to that email address, and I changed the password (using my phone which was not the 'potentially compromised' device originally used). I then checked the email settings to ensure no re-directs, etc. I then scanned the laptop with Windows Defender (as I did not have anti-virus from third-party firms at the time), which showed no issues. I then purchased 3 anti-virus trials with TotalAV, Norton, and Bitdefender. I scanned using all three, and cleaned up the PC at the same time. Nothing was detected.
I have scanned a few more times since, with no recorded issues. I've also seen no issues so far on the laptop, nor other services I used connected to my email address.
I would like to know if my data is safe, my laptop is still able to be used, and if it was 2 hours before I actioned anything, would anything have been sent to bad actors by then? Would anti-virus or scans found problems if anything had downloaded onto my computer? Is it possible I've changed passwords in time, and got lucky?
Thanks everyone!
