Cyberspace encounter leaves Internet user wary but wiser

By Ashish Vij

I had always thought that the Internet could be a friendly place as long as you weren't irresponsible online. It turns out I was wrong. Even the most responsible of people could be susceptible to the whims and fancies of some psycho out in cyberspace.

Recently, I had my first run-in with a hacker. He ended up gaining complete control over my computer as I watched in horror. It was a strange incident--what made it strangest was that I had never thought it could happen to me. Thankfully, he was not able to do any damage.

It was a Friday night. I was at my computer talking to friends of mine online while my parents prepared to go to sleep. I logged onto the popular Internet-chat program called ICQ, and was conversing with a college family friend who was down in San Diego. Suddenly, I received a file transfer request. The person on the other end was someone I had recently met through the Internet.

Now, don't get me wrong here. I don't randomly talk to weirdoes online and make friends with them. This guy happened to be a friend of someone I know at school, and so I trusted him.

Earlier, he had contacted me after viewing my web page, and asked me for assistance in making a graphic for his own page. I agreed, since I often make graphics for friends of mine. Although I did not personally know this guy, I didn't anticipate that anything bad could happen since someone I personally knew also knew him. And so, I blindly accepted the request to transfer a file.

The file was called "animate.exe," and because of its name, I assumed it had to do with the graphic request I had received earlier. The file transfer ended, and I clicked on the filename to view it. Nothing happened.

Because of the fact that I had never had an incident with viruses before, I didn't suspect that this could be anything harmful. I brushed it aside, thinking that maybe this "animation" was broken.

A little while later, I was sending an email to a friend of mine. Suddenly, a few lines of type disappeared. I blinked, and they were still gone. So, thinking that it was just some strange error, I resumed typing the mail. More lines disappeared. Now, I began to get suspicious.

At this time, I had a message box open while I was talking to another friend. Suddenly, all the typing disappeared! I watched as some characters appeared on my screen without my touching anything. They read, "I have control over your computer. Ha ha." I was shocked. I didn't know what to do.

More characters appeared.

"Let's see what's in your CD-ROM drive."

My CD-ROM drive opened. Now, my shock had changed into fear. I didn't know who this guy was yet, and what he could do! But it didn't stop here. I had a virus scan running on my hard drive, and I received yet another message.

"You're running a virus scan, aren't you. Nice try."

My virus scan suddenly stopped. Right then, I manually re-started my PC. As it re-booted, my head was swimming. I had no idea what was going on, or who had just done this. Somehow, I thought that re-starting would automatically fix things. Once again, I was wrong.

When I logged onto Windows again, I re-connected to the Internet. Another dumb move. Once I re-connected, he had control once again. I logged onto that chat program again, and the same message box came up.

"Ha ha."

I typed in a response.

"Who is this?"

"Ha ha."

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because I'm bored."

"Do you even know me?"

"Ashish or something."

Right then, I disconnected without re-starting. A few seconds later, Windows gave me an error.

"ERROR 0557464: animate.exe: runtime error."

It was "animate.exe!" That was the program that was giving him access! I was filled with fury. I wanted to report him. But, first things first. I deleted that file, but then sat down and thought. If he was able to get control every time I logged onto Windows, then there had to be another hidden file in Windows itself! I ran a search for another file with the same name of "animate.exe." I found it. It was sitting right there in the main Windows directory. I deleted that file as well, and then ran a few more virus scans.

When I was sure I was nice and safe, I logged on again. There were no problems. He wasn't able to control my computer anymore! Success! However, I still wanted to deal with him.

I messaged him in caps lock, which, on the Internet, is the equivalent of yelling. I angrily informed him that everything I had agreed to do for him was off, and that I would report him. Then, I blocked him so that he could no longer contact me in any way, shape, or form. I reported him to his ISP (Internet Service Provider), and asked that they deal with him accordingly, since hacking is illegal.

What have I learned from this experience? A few very simple lessons:

First, I hate hackers. Enough said.

Second, I have to be careful about what I get from who I know on the Internet. Although this incident was rather benign, it still could have turned into something ugly.

Third, never run "exe" files that you get from the Internet!

And finally, thank god for virus scans. In closing, I'd just like to leave you with this thought. Be careful what you do on the World Wide Web. You never know what may happen. And now, I'll be extra careful.

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Ashish Vij is a junior at Saratoga High School. If you are 18 or under and a resident of Saratoga, you're welcome to contribute to YouthTalk. Contact Saratoga News editor Dale Bryant, 354-3110, ext. 31 or dbryant@metronews.com.

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