How to Catch A Hacker In Your Computer

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Published 2023-03-04
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In this video we discuss how to detect if someone is snooping around your computer, whether a hacker or anyone else. The first method is a cool service called "Canary Tokens" which lets you set traps or "canarys" that will send you an email if they are accessed. These can be files of various types, Windows folders, links, and many more. Then I show you a method I came up with, where if someone accesses a specific file or folder in any way (even copying it without opening it), it will trigger an immediate shutdown of the computer and/or disable all network adapters to cut off remote access. This method is done using the Auditing security features in Windows.

ADDITIONAL NOTES / UPDATES:
• Many commenters have suggested adding the "-f" (force) parameter to the shutdown command, which prevents any programs from blocking the shutdown. So I'll add that to the command below.
• Many commenters have also mentioned that the Windows folder canary token wasn't working for them, so it might not be very reliable

Commands for copying:
• Disable All Network Adapters ⇨ Get-NetAdapter | Disable-NetAdapter -Confirm:$false
• Timed Shutdown With Message ⇨ shutdown -s -f -t 30 -c "Your message here"
• Cancel Shutdown ⇨ shutdown -a
• Apply Group Policy Changes ⇨ GPUpdate /Force

▼ Time Stamps: ▼
0:00 - Intro
0:51 - An Excellent Thing
2:19 - Canary Tokens
6:26 - My Method
7:31 - The Steps
7:56 - Enable Auditing
9:58 - Task Scheduler Tasks
11:35 - Setting Actions When Triggered
14:29 - Event Viewer Log

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All Comments (21)
  • @ThioJoe
    Sponsored: Get 25% off Blinkist premium and enjoy 2 memberships for the price of 1! Start your 7-day free trial by clicking here: www.blinkist.com/thiojoe
  • @szr8
    6:39 A way to effect group policy editing changes on a Home edition is to do it on a Pro/Enterprise/Server version then go to the registry and export the policy that was set, copy the exported .reg file to a Home version and then merge into its registry.
  • The folder trick made me laugh, one guy who annoys scammers had a folder called “nudes” the scammer took a look and it was naked mole rats 🤣
  • @Amonimus
    Another trap potential: an autohotkey macro. You let the script run while you AFK, and if any button is pressed except the one specified, another script runs.
  • @ronelm2000
    It would also be useful to set up a trigger for if anyone tries to change Group Policy, as smarter malware might mess with that before copying anything.
  • Hackers watching this: 💀 Edit: Guys stop liking this my notifications explode.......... (Btw yes, my comment has 10x more likes than the creators lol)
  • Thank you. This is definitely bookmarked in case I need to use it and follow the instructions closer. Really appreciate your time in making this.
  • @TheMAZZTer
    Windows will cache icons so the folder token probably stopped working for that reason. I imagine the idea is once it's triggered once you don't necessarily care if you miss subsequent triggers, so it's fine if the icon cache causes it not to retrigger. Keep in mind auditing is off by default as it tends to slow down file access. So this may not be the best solution depending on your hardware. That said if you set it up for only specific files you're probably ok. Also keep in mind as you said lots of applications have legitimate reasons to sneak a peak at arbitrary files, but this extends beyond the search indexer. For example AV scanners, Windows Explorer trying to generate a thumbnail, etc so audits may not be as useful as you might think.
  • @chromerims
    Thank you. Very clever traps and alerts using Windows files and folders.
  • @gavincstewart
    excellent video! this is all great information to have and I would love to learn more about what I can do with task scheduler!
  • @Jdbye
    I think every Group Policy setting can be changed directly in the registry if you know where, regardless of whether you have Home or Pro versions of Windows. So that might be worth looking into for anybody stuck with Home.
  • I do have to say I'm so glad you got away from troll content, as much as I loved it back then too, to something so much more useful overall to everyone. Definitely seems like a good pay it forward!
  • @GaryBeltz
    My message for the shutdown would be something like "Warning! the self destruct sequence has been activated. The computer will explode in (seconds)
  • Simply don't leave your computer unlocked. Create a desktop shortcut to immediately lock the OS and use it. You can even create a script to not only lock the screen but to display a fake background of some kind of work/development taking place to throw off the nosy busy bodies.
  • @SKCro.
    Here's an easy-to-make "silent alarm" type of trap: Make a shortcut to a batch script that looks like a folder, and make that batch script write a file somewhere or otherwise alert you, then open the folder as normal. I dunno how to make CMD run silently though. You could also pull a prank and make it do the shutdown command instead, preferably with a custom message :P
  • @prowler1567
    Thanks for the in depth info. Will refer back for reference. 👍
  • @namvo3371
    Canary token can also be used for defenders and security professionals because they can use to lure attackers into revealing their presence or actions. great content!
  • @rsearchtim
    Thanks for the video on auditing file access.