I may have just been hacked-- loss of content, Google/Facebook alerts

[Kevvo]

As the above post mentions, I was the victim of a hacking job recently. I logged onto my computer, discovered that all my desktop icons, documents, and bookmarks were missing, and when I finally got onto my mail, I got messages from Facebook and Chrome about login attempts from unknown locations. I immediately went into safe mode, did a MWB scan (found 2 PUPs), changed all my passwords on everything, and had my bank account disable my card.

That being said, I'm trying to figure on what to do next:
-I have MalwareBytes, and had a free trial of AVG. Should I bite the bullet and buy Premium of something?
-VPN: good idea?
-Facebook says that my current IP address is Hong Kong (spoiler: I don't live in Hong Kong). What is this, and how should I correct it?

BTW, it's worth noting that everything appears to be restored on my computer. That being said, I still want to be absolutely certain it's secure.

 

[MoxieMomma]

Hi:

Until one of the trained malware experts arrives, a couple of thoughts:

• I hope you changed your passwords from a known, clean computer, not from the infected one?
• I wouldn't recommend conducting any sort of financial transaction from the possibly infected/hacked computer until you have been given the "all clear" by an experienced malware removal helper here or at one of several excellent computer disinfection forums:
  • Most of the powerful malware removal tools used these days by the experts are free, so there's no need to pay for that now.
  • The scanner for MBAM Free is the same as the one for MBAM Premium, so you don't gain anything by that now, since you are already infected/hacked. The difference is primarily the real-time protection and it's "too late" for that now. You need cleanup first, then protection.
  • If you conduct financial transactions from an infected system, your information is vulnerable.
• After you get cleaned up, you'll need to harden your system security and computing habits, to minimize the chance of re-infection.

I'll leave it to the more experienced, trained forum members to assist with your malware removal/repair.


Thank you,

 

[GokAy]

Hmm, go to this site https://ipcim.com/en/?p=where
verify it shows your correct location

 

[Callender]

Facebook Security

Well I stay way from Facebook these days but when I did use it:

I set my Facebook account to notify me by email for each login.

How to turn on Facebook Login Notifications

Also enable secure browsing on Facebook. It didn't used to offer secure browsing by default so maybe they've fixed that. If they haven't check this out:

Enable Secure Browsing - Facebook

Then if you want additional protection that scans links that you click when using Facebook (some of them redorect to pages containing malware) check out this browser addon.

DrWeb Link Checker

Available for popular browsers and it automatically checks facebook links when you click on them.

Warns users of social networking websites about following links to other sites and scans the linked content

Note: It also scans any download link if the link is right clicked and scans the download before you actually download it so it's pretty handy.