Detect Computer Monitoring & Email Spying Softwares

Have you ever felt that someone is spying on to your computer or reading your emails? You may be correct!

Computer monitoring:

Monitoring PC has been possible not until the advent of Windows XP SP3 or Windows Vista both of which do not support multiple concurrent connections, and thus prevents hacking into each other’s account. You will also know that someone else tries to log into your account using a built-in remote desktop, as this feature of Windows will lock your account instantly. This means you can detect yourself when someone can only use third-party softwares to take over your screen without your knowledge.

These third party softwares are also called remote control software or virtual network computing software. Detecting these softwares is not easy for a normal user because IT people know what these users will ignore as softwares. The first step in detecting the presence of these softwares is to check for VNC softwares in the programs menu for these installed or running softwares.

The second step is to check thoroughly for icons of these softwares, including the hidden icons, and do a quick Google search for what these unknown softwares are. Moreover, those installed in taskbar usually shows up, while those sneaky softwares usually do not show up when installed.

The second way to prevent these softwares from entering or to find out whether they are in there is to check for the differing communication ports that these third-party applications will have to use. The built-in Firewalls of XP and vista mostly screen out these ports. These ports are open and can be checked via the Control Panel and Windows Firewall. In the Exceptions tab, there will be list of programs where the open ones are to check for the presence of anything similar to VNC or remote programs. The simple way to stop them is to uncheck them.

The only other option to check whether your computer is being monitored is by going to the Processes tab in the Task Manager and check for User Name. If you see anything else other than your username, local service, network service and system, then someone else has hacked into your user account.

Email and Website Monitoring :

This depends on how you are going to send your emails. If you are going to send your email from an email client like Outlook or some other client on your computer, then you will be using proxy server, which can request, alter and check the emails before being forwarded to another client. These proxy servers allow you to access the websites or the emails you write to be saved and viewed later. In the browser menu of IE, go to the options tab, and click for connections and choose LAN settings. If the proxy server is checked and if you could detect a local port number then you are using a local server for permission to pass through before reaching a web server. As you are using email client where you are using POP or IMAP services or in a big corporate offices where you will be monitored for sure, the best thing to do is to write emails carefully or browse permitted websites in the office without breaking the security.

Other ways to detect if any malicious activity of email monitoring is going on is by using anti-spyware to check your computer for such softwares that will pirate your personal information and data. For example, are the network surveillance softwares that will monitor all activities of all user accounts over an entire network. They will also allow allotting permissions accordingly.

Guest Writer : Praveen Sivaraman is a 23 year old IT Student, Currently Working in a Famous IT firm in India. With a passion for technology and a knack for writing, He owns and runs Techperk, a technology related updates Blog.