Found Nirsoft Password Recovery program and I did not install it- how did it get ther

[Etaria]

First of all, forgive me if I have posted this in wrong place... I am new here- and once again great to meet you all!

Anyway...

I found a program called Protected Storage Passview and I never downloaded it. Upon opened the .txt documents it generated it contains all my passwords to like my outlook email, and various other places.

It looks to have been "created" Nov. 15 and I remember my norton antivirus catching something that day which it hasn't found anything in months. Now I looked up this company/software/freeware on google and it looks to be a legit program (not something malicious)- but I never installed it or downloaded it.

Here is the site I found on info on the exact thing I found on my computer:

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/pspv.html

and it shows info about norton finding this as a trojan but it isn't.. so that is a relief I do not really have a virus/trojan. But my question is.. if this is legit company.. and I did not download this on my computer- how did it get there?

Now I have no idea how these things work or how one would be able to get this on their without being in my house (incidently no one here that would have downloaded it)... could this have been somehow put on my computer from elsewhere? I know i did recently go through a breakup and he is kind of computer savvy- and would like to know how to prevent someone from accessing my computer or putting these things on it...

Anyway I may be way off base but I know i did not download anything or click any funky links.. same things i have always done for the past 5 months or so. Any help or knowledge would be greatly appreciated!

PS... I am new here- and i see many thread with "hijack" in them- what exactly does this word mean in your lingo here?

Oh any my computer stats are

XP Pro
40 gig seagate barracude HD
1 gig 400 DDR ram
1.8 mhz AMD athlon
Geforce 5900 vid card
no soundcard/speakers
have yet to find out exact name of my mobo

 

[Nodsu]

I'll start by saying that Norton is Bad..

Obviously someone put that program there - either remotely by exploiting a security hole or tricking you into running some program or just someone with physical access to your computer. Either way, you should change all your passwords ASAP.

Also. Someone knowledgeable (and perhaps with a desire for revenge) has had full access to your computer and only god knows what other programs lurk there.. You should cleanslate the computer ASAP too. Get a trustworthy person to do it for you if you think you can't do it yourself. Save your important files on a CD or something similar. You should only keep passive content (a la documents, pictures, music, videos, bookmarks) and not copy a single program over to your new installation.

For best computer security you need:
1. Common sense
2. See above
3. Firewall
4. Antivirus (and update it daily)
5. Anti-Spyware (and update it every time you use it)

You can browse these very forums for some good examples of the said software (and some good examples of lacking 1 and 2)

 

[Etaria]

Great info...(btw i was reading last night and found out how terrible norton is! Thank you for reiterating that for me.. I will be on the prowl now for something better recommende don this board) and yeah I am betting it may be my ex now that I read that, or one of his computer techy friends.. but regardless... I will change all passwords this afternoon.

I am getting rid of this hard drive since i have no idea what is on it - i have a brand new 160 gig hard drive awaiting me and currently ordering XP pro for it... after that vesides doing what you recommended, installing antivirus, firewall, antispyware- can "someone" easily access my computer again? Should I change my ISP #? Or would that not have anything to do with it. Sicne it would be a new hard drive and new everything (virus software firewall etc) what else would I need to worry about or take precaution on with it being a brand new hard drive?

incidently.. yeah he is VERY mad at me and I would not put this past him to keep trying to access my computer if he was indeed the one who did it.. i wish I was more computer savvy...

 

[Nodsu]

If your ISP gave you a fixed IP address then you might want to change it, yes. If you have a broadband router then you should look over its configuration and get rid of any dynamic dns setup.

When you are doing your new Windows installation, do not connect your computer to the network before you have a firewall in place.