Minding my own business tonight playing H3, when suddenly my xbl gets disconnected. Then my laptop's internet goes out. I go to check what's wrong with them and my network is now called "Hacked By #LulzTeam" Well, I don't want ****ing Anonymous messing around with my internet or personal information. I'm assuming that's what happened. Can anybody tell me... -Exactly what the hell just happened? -If any of my personal information has been obtained? -How I can keep this from happening again? (To the best of my knowledge, the home internet is password protected. I use Avast! for antivirus/general computer protection.)
It appears that anybody can connect to your router which means that they could have changed some settings around. (Most people don't change the default user/password.) It is possible for them to obtain your usernames and passwords by obtaining cookies over the network. I haven't read much about it... But I know there's a firefox add-on for it or something. I read the article a while ago... lol. My advice: set up a password and username for the network.
Do you have a prankish neighbor or anything, I'm not sure if they can get to those settings without being connected directly to the router, which means their within it's range.
Yeah, what these guys said, but I'd just like to add a dose of realism here, You didn't "Get hacked by anonymoose!" or "g3t p0wnedz by Lulzsec!"
This. It's some jerk in range of your WiFi who thinks they're funny and chose that name, nothing to do with Anon or LulzSec. As for fixing it/stopping it happening again, I'd assume they cracked your WiFi security and then got in to your router configuration page because the password is still set to the default password. To reset your router and kick 'em out again, use the factory reset button that'll be on the router itself somewhere (probably one of those pinhole deals, so get a drawing pin or something to press it). After resetting, it'll be back to how it was when you got it. You should then change your WiFi password, possibly choosing a better level of encryption if one is available. Then you should change the password on your router configuration page (this will likely 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1, but your router will probably have it written on a label near the WiFi key). This page allows you to configure the router settings, and will be how they change the name/WiFi password etc. The key setting you want is the password to access the configuration page itself, as very few people even know about this page and so leave the password to access it as the default (generally being username: admin, password: admin or something similar, but again this should be written on your router somewhere, if not then consult the manual or google the model number). If you change this password then even after someone gets on to your network by cracking your WiFi password, they won't be able to change settings like this without cracking a further password. You're not going to be using this password very often, so don't worry too much about it being memorable, just make it as a secure as possible (avoid full words, mix uppercase/lowercase/numbers/letters/non-alphanumeric characters) so that people can't crack it easily.
Protip to OP: Don't use Avast, Norton, AVG, McAfee etc. As the others have said, your router is probably set to the factory default Login/Pass Admin/Admin.
Microsoft Security Essentials is a great, free Antivirus option. I don't bother with those other ones now. Tbh, I doubt Antivirus is going to do that much based on what they're doing. Antivirus protects your computer itself, but if they're in the network they don't have to directly access your computer to get information you send over the internet, they could just monitor the traffic sent by your computer to the network. However, if they wanted to mine your personal information (or had the means to do so, which is MUCH harder than just hacking your network) they wouldn't have alerted you to their presence like this. It seems like just a prank tbh, I seriously doubt you have anything to worry about in terms of personal information.
Agreed, it was probably just a prank from a friend of yours, or something along those lines. You're not, how can I put this... a "high value target" for anyone with the actual knowledge on how to "hack".
Thanks to everybody who responded. I don't know **** about computers, but the thought that it's some stupid neighbor kid instead of Anonymous is comforting. Also, one of my parents works at Rockwell Collins. I believe that's semi-high value, isn't it? Anyway... as long as the threat's probably gone... Yep, thanks e'rybody. <3 Edit: also contacted a friend of mine that knows a LOT more about computers than I do. He's a computer hacker himself. Recommended Comodo firewall protection. This is good stuff, innit?
"Also, one of my parents works at Rockwell Collins. I believe that's semi-high value, isn't it?" While interesting, no. Foreign agencies would be more interested in what goes on in a defense and aeronautics company but rest easy knowing that foreign agencies are not guessing your router password (usually just password or admin if it was never changed) and leaving obvious troll network names on your computer. As far as an anti-virus goes, that program is fine. There are many choices, some tend to slow down a computer just because of their size and persistence. Here is a list of anti-virus software and ratings done by cnet. Antivirus Software - CNET Download.com