cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Pinkcat007
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎07-11-2020

Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Hello, could someone help? My son is an online gamer. Long story short someone booted him offline yesterday and has hacked his gaming accounts and changed his Xbox live credentials. My question is, can I change my IP address and make it invisible to other gamers, thus preventing the booting issue?
32 REPLIES 32
Alex
Community Veteran
Posts: 5,500
Thanks: 921
Fixes: 13
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Possibly, but all you would do is get another one which could still be at risk.

First thing is to get your son to secure his account and change all his passwords.

Also, does he use the same password on another device, such as a PC or Mac? You have some malware on there which is a keylogging device. (So it won't just fix his, you could have someone could logging into your accounts too).

Changing IP might make the square root difference of nothing, if you have something installed on a local device.

Pinkcat007
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎07-11-2020

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Thank you so much for the quick reply. I’m so cross about what’s happened. I have to deal with the Xbox/Microsoft account recovery first...I have tried and managed initially but somehow the hacker still got into the account. If I get the IP changed and buy one of those VPNs (if that’s what they are called) would it make my son immune to these booters? It’s such a nightmare..we have spent so much money on these accounts just to have them hacked is awful.
daveplus
Pro
Posts: 630
Thanks: 132
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎25-08-2010

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

@Pinkcat007 

If you have malware in your system, changing IP address is not going to get rid of it.

I am not familiar with XBOX OS and other software but you need to get rid of the malware and install an anti-malware program before going on line again.

HTH

Dave

daveplus
Pro
Posts: 630
Thanks: 132
Fixes: 10
Registered: ‎25-08-2010

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

@Pinkcat007

Shot in the dark: Does your son download games from dodgy sources? I would guess that such downloads are riddled with malware

idonno
Champion
Posts: 1,564
Thanks: 506
Fixes: 6
Registered: ‎22-10-2015

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Have you got the MS authenticator on the mobile? Usually cures a lot of things regarding getting back into the account(s). Changing IP address won't really help as the Microsoft account tends to acknowledge known ones. e.g. when I upgraded the computer I had to use the authenticator as a means of regaining access as it no longer recognised the device I was using. I have in the past received emails from MS regarding naff log-in. I have just paid a visit to the account and you can see where the attempted log ins were from (Russia, Africa!). All I then did was flag them up as unknown. Presumably MS then block them - I got an email later on saying access had been restricted from these sources.

 

FWIW For the future... Although I have a fair number of MS email addresses, not all can access the account. I use one that has never been used for emails (to the world it doesn't exist) for logging in to the account. You need to get into the security section to limit such access. Also two factor authentication can beef it up. If you still have access to the account, you can see the log on history and can flag up unknown sources. Another means of making life difficult for whoever (by not actually typing anything to log on to websites etc) is to use a password manager. For instance, I use the one that comes with Firefox. Looking at the generated passwords you'd need to pretty darn lucky to guess any of them.

 

I would though run Malware detecting software (plenty out there) as a first requirement. Good luck.

Ever helpful. Grin Sure, I’d love to help you out. Now which way did you come in?
Pinkcat007
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎07-11-2020

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Thank you for your help. We’ve managed to secure the actual game account but have been locked out of the Xbox live account. I will look in to the authentication apps although I do find it worrying that these so called pro booters can knock you offline and get in to your accounts. It been a hard lesson learned. Plus net have said that there is no point using a vpn as you won’t be able to play in parties online so I guess that’s that on that front.
Pinkcat007
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎07-11-2020

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

No he only plays Fortnite and doesn’t download other games. We could see the log in from the hacker in USA when we could log into the Xbox account...he tried to change the security details on the Xbox/Microsoft account. I am still worried he will be able to access it again but we shall see. In any case, I can’t log into the Microsoft account for 24 hours but hopefully then I will be able to fully secure it again.
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked


@idonno wrote:

 Also two factor authentication can beef it up. 


 Very good advice

I always use two factor  authentication if it's offered it can sometimes be a pain but well worth it

 

HD

Jambo
Hooked
Posts: 5
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎29-10-2020

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked


@Pinkcat007 wrote:
Thank you for your help. We’ve managed to secure the actual game account but have been locked out of the Xbox live account. I will look in to the authentication apps although I do find it worrying that these so called pro booters can knock you offline and get in to your accounts. It been a hard lesson learned. Plus net have said that there is no point using a vpn as you won’t be able to play in parties online so I guess that’s that on that front.

 

Hey Pinkcat007 Smiley

I know quite a bit about this, so maybe able to help, first of all two seperate things occured here.

  1. Someone booted him offline as you mentioned
  2. Someone hacked into his Xbox Live account

They are two seperate things, I can explain how each has happened and how to stop it happening.

 

Someone booted him offline as you mentioned

  • Most likely someone sent a DOS/DDOS attack towards your ISP/IP which can actually cause your internet to disconnect, they are not neccesarily hard to do and any kid who can download a script could technically do this. They can grab the IP address of the ISP rather easy from games.

What can you do?

  • Not too much to be honest, sadly its a risk of online gaming, its rather easy to find IP addresses and easy to DDOS them.
  • Restarting your router a few times may force your router to change IP address which may stop them being able to attack that certain IP address.
  • You could buy a VPN, but it gets a bit complicated if you want to protect a gaming console using a VPN, because the VPN needs to be applied to just that device and Xbox doesn't natively support a VPN yet (wish it did). You could route your Xbox through a PC / Mac which is using a VPN if you have one or if your router supports it you could set up a VPN here. https://www.techadvisor.co.uk/how-to/game/use-vpn-xbox-one-3671248/ (Honestly though its a bit overkill, 99.99% of the time people wont DoS you, if its a specific friend / person he knows which did it, make sure he doesn't play anymore games with that person)

 

Someone hacked into his Xbox Live account

  • This happened probably after they did a DoS attack, its quite common if someone really hates you that they may try and hack your account.
  • The only way they can hack your account is to guess or know the password for your account. The password on the account must have been weak or compromised, as people mentioned above if a PC / Mac on your network has been infected a keylogger may of compromised your password.
  • Ideally if you can try and work out how they managed to compromise the password, was it a weak password?  Use a site like https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/ to check if the password is weak?
  • Change the password to something more secure as soon as you get access to the account
  • Ensure to enable 2FA / MFA on your Xbox account https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/account-billing/how-to-use-two-step-verification-with-your-micro... This makes it pretty much impossible to hack in the future unless the hacker has access to your phone.

 

Also It maybe worth working out why this person went to such an extent to steal his account / DOS him in the first place. Did he annoy them? Sometimes people do stuff for silly reasons or no reasons at all, but if they did it as they were annoyed at something he did, perhaps its worth ensuring that it doesn't occur again.

 

Alex
Community Veteran
Posts: 5,500
Thanks: 921
Fixes: 13
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Good post @Jambo and welcome.

I remember one classic when I (tried to) run a World Of Warcraft guild. I got my own domain (easy) and got some phpBB2 hosting (back in the day).

Myself and the Guild Master were admins, well of course I made sure I was 😀 but then I made her one too as manager of the guild.

Her and the person she was seeing fell out, he was also within the game. So lots of nasty posts later I moved them to the admin only accessible section. There you you go, the fun and games of running things over the internet, what people do outside of your control can affect you.

I suspect it was someone running a script to be honest, who is just bored.

Pinkcat007
Dabbler
Posts: 11
Registered: ‎07-11-2020

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Hi Jambo
Thanks for your detailed reply.
I agree with the booting issue, it’s happened a few times, and as you say, it seems it’s not too difficult for anyone to do and something that we have to put up with...I guess it’s part of the (sometimes) gaming community. Annoying but not the end of the world.
More seriously though, as mentioned, my son’s Fortnite account was hacked. He had a really decent account...most people would want it so it becomes a target. My son plays online with other people, sometimes with people he doesn’t know. What happened in this case is that the person he was playing with asked to go on the account (which I have repeatedly told my son not to do) but apparently the guy was pressurising my boy (who is 11) so he gave him the log in email. The hacker guy kept asking for the password but my son kept giving the wrong one as he didn’t want to give the guy access. Long story short, the hacker did manage to access the Fortnite account and also the Microsoft account connected to Xbox live. He even tried to change all the security log in details but fortunately I got a notification and managed to stop this. Eventually after messaging Fortnite support page I have not secured the account and set up further 2fa so I hope that puts an end to that.
Unfortunately since this has happened my son’s Instagram has also been accessed and today I have woken up to a notification that an app I installed on my iPhone is an unsafe website (I downloaded Norton vpn after these issues as my phone is old and hadn’t been updated to the latest iOS although I have now done that). When I clicked on the notification about the Norton app being unsafe, it said it was a phishing site but how can this be? My phone shows it’s connected to a vpn that I got on the site and I thought everything was now ok. I honestly feel is my phone the weak link here and I need to change it. This hacker is obviously determined. To be honest it is getting me down now.
Hudsonjames
Dabbler
Posts: 12
Thanks: 6
Registered: ‎11-11-2020

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Hacking into your connection through your ip is possible but highly unlikely as your broadband router has a built in firewall and would be difficult and would most likely result in the router dropping or loosing its internet connection due to the amount of data packets and traffic that the router would have to deal with this is known as a Denial-of-service attack will not go into detail but it’s more than likely that there is either spyware a virus or a key logger on your pc that has been recording your passwords and transferring them to the internet due to unreliable antivirus software get your pc checked and cleaned of viruses at some place like curry’s or pc world and change all passwords it’s unlikely your xbox has been hacked beacuse its monitored by Microsoft and haven’t heard of one being hacked.
definedrisk
Newbie
Posts: 4
Thanks: 3
Registered: ‎10-11-2020

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

@Pinkcat007 probably a bit late to this party but you have https://support.xbox.com/en-GB/help/account-profile/manage-account/compromised-account-solution for future reference. Do call them if you have any concerns as they answer and help.

And definitely, as described in previous replies, try and use 2-factor authentication with an app on an android or iphone device going forward. This is the app from Microsoft for Android https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.azure.authenticator&hl=en&gl=US and IPhone https://apps.apple.com/us/app/microsoft-authenticator/id983156458

Alex
Community Veteran
Posts: 5,500
Thanks: 921
Fixes: 13
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: Help urgently needed...IP address hacked

Also PlusNet have a software firewall their end, which I assume is enabled by default and only disabled if you either request it or try changing it on the member centre?

Possible someone has gotten hold of your password elsewhere. It has happened to me where one company (who had my password) mailed me to say their database had been hacked. They admitted the passwords were stored in their underlying database were unencrypted. Ooops 🙄

Even so, a popular method of doing that can be worked around. When I ran a forum I tried it and it worked. I won't say how I did it or the encryption method or I will get told off.

As said, I would definitely keep a log of all your passwords, and use a separate one for each account. That way if one of your accounts gets hacked then someone can't use it to your others.

Just means a bit more admin. That's what I do now.