Help: I got hacked! Now what do I do?

For us, there are no other options: Flatten the system.

Jesper Johansson at Microsoft Security Management:

• Help: I Got Hacked. Now What Do I Do?

There are no guarantees when it comes to cleaning out a compromised system.

None … nada … zilch.

Thus, keeping a good, tested, and up to date backup is essential for getting the data back. Not recovering the complete system, just for recovering the data itself.

To date, we have only had a few one-off situations where the person with the compromised system did not want it rebuilt. In that case, we make it pretty clear, in writing, that there can be no guarantees that the system is clean after we have done our best to remove the offensive content.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists
Co-Author: SBS 2008 Blueprint Book

*All Mac on SBS posts will not be written on a Mac until we replace our now missing iMac! (previous blog post)

Windows Live Writer