TeamViewer Servers Go Down, Users Believe They Are Hacked (softpedia.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Softpedia: Something is happening with TeamViewers servers at the moment, and all clues point to a massive breach that has led to many users going on Reddit and complaining about having their computers hacked. Some users have reported finding new transactions in their PayPal and bank accounts, while others discovered someone had been poking around their email account. Other lucky users said they barely avoided getting hacked at the last minute, noticing their mouse starting to move across the screen, and hurrying to disconnect their Internet connection. On Twitter, the TeamViewer team wrote that they're only experiencing issues in some parts of their network, but they denied any security breach, at least on their side. In the past months, we've seen malware use TeamViewer many times to infect computers, but most of those cases were because of users who used weak passwords, which is certainly not TeamViewer's fault. It is strange that this time around, just when TeamViewer servers go down, multiple users also flock to social media to complain about getting hacked. This is either one huge strange cosmic coincidence or TeamViewer is really at fault and won't be able to pin the blame on its users. On a semi-related note, PayPal will be suspending their business operations in Turkey after failing to obtain a new license for its service in the country.

Comments

On a semi-related note

[schneidafunk]

A totally different story!

Re:On a semi-related note

[Kargan]

How the heck is that even remotely related to the TeamViewer article??

Re:On a semi-related note

[nadaou]

Which raises the question: Is BeauHD actually an AI bot?

Re:On a semi-related note

[ADRA]

A story that was already a dup!

Re:Teamviewer... euh, why would you use that?

[dejitaru]

Well, I use it for both the simplicity and capability to access my computer from both my android phone and the computer at work (browser, since i'm not allowed to install anything w/o IT permission).

When you factor in the fact that it has TFA, it's a pretty solid program that works well with multiple monitors. Why do you think scammers use it as well? It's a damn good program, free, and easy to use. Perfect to walk through an average user to install.

Re: Could you give us at least a hint ?

[Anonymous Coward]

No.

If you don't already know what it is, and if you are not able to type anything at all into a search engine, you will never need to know what team viewer is.

Just don't worry about it.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Teamviewer... euh, why would you use that?

[Ol Olsoc]

Easier than getting them to join a GoToMeeting, making them a presenter, then having them display their screen?

Having used both, Teamviwer works better IMO.

Re:That just raises the question

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean like The Register? Who just copy-pasted the Reddit threads in their article? Sorry pal! Modern day journalism is shit.

Another example: This BBC article just quoted tweets and Reddit threads: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-36426142 If even the BBC does it, what do you expect from other sources.

Re:Teamviewer... euh, why would you use that?

[Ol Olsoc]

uhm, if they are on windows they can just use Skype to share their screen....

But as a person who gives a lot of support to windows users, I don't use Windows - goint to front me a free one?

Re:Teamviewer... euh, why would you use that?

[vux984]

I don't think there is an OS today that doesn't have built-in remote support... why would you ever install some shady 3rd party program?

What is the builtin remote support for windows that is actually worth a damn? What about OSX?

Teamviewer is crossplatform (mac, PC, and Linux, ios, and android...); and quite frankly it's, very, very good. It works behind firewalls. It plays well with UAC.

It's pretty inexpensive even for commercial use, and free for personal use. Its not even slightly shady.

There are a few other solutions but most that I've tried are flaky crap by comparison, and the other good ones cost more.

Re:Teamviewer... euh, why would you use that?

[MightyYar]

OSX screen sharing works great with other OSX machines. Not as great with Windows, and definitely not when trying to pierce firewalls and use an alternate keyboard layout.

Re: Just went through

[analien7901]

Monday morning i came to my computer and saw the typical 'this session was free' message and $800 of Amazon gift cards purchased and attempts for eBay purchases. Checked the logs and it showed that 'I' connected through teamviewer. I checked the only other computer in my contact list that was online and it has similar attempts in amazon and eBay (no account info for that computer). To me, this says someone was for sure signed in under my user in TV. My password is a pretty strong password with upper, lower, numeric and special, with no actual words, implied or otherwise. My fault for not taking more local securities, but I fully believe TV has had a breach.

Are the contact requests related?

[sims 2]

I only use team viewer occasionally and I think only have one macine running with it installed.

Anyway I setup a teamviewer account back in 2010 but I didn't end up needing it I had not recived any emails from them until this year and now i'm getting "New contact request" emails from teamviewer.

Is this some type of overly complicated spam or what?
who is this "ARIA-PC"?

Me too

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw my Paypal e-mailed me today that there was a transaction. I immediately disputed that transaction and changed my password. I didn't know it was through TeamViewer that the hacker got in until now. So I've turned off all Teamviewer on my computers. I changed Teamviewer's password too, before that when I saw the log, it said someone logged in from Beijing yesterday. So far I haven't found any other unauthorized transaction yet other than 1 on Paypal which they refunded me already. Cross fingers that there is no more.

Re:Me too

[Anonymous Coward]

You saw logs that confirm that someone gained unauthorized entry into your system? Your system is compromised. And even if it's not, you should assume it is.

You should immediately:
1) Unplug the network connection.
2) Back up any important files to a WORM media device, like a DVD. Don't plug a write-many device into your computer.
3) Wipe all drives.
4) Check all drives (and any write-many devices you've plugged in to the system) for boot-sector nasties.
5) Reinstall everything. Except TeamViewer, of course, because you should've learned that lesson by now.

Alternately, you can restore from a recent (but prior to, say, last week) full system backup if you have one. Make sure you still back up any files changed since then. Also make sure you uninstall TeamViewer completely once you do that.

This is the only way to be sure. Don't just cross your fingers. Cross your T's and dot your I's. You've already had a financial attack against you. There will be more.

Re:Teamviewer... euh, why would you use that?

[mtmra70]

Having used both, and WebEx, and Skype For Business, WebEx wins. WebEx has multiple methods to get the app running, most not requiring admin rights.

Click the "join" button, enter any required info and click the share button. I don't know why so many people have a problem with those simple tasks. It's the SHARE button....in the middle of the screen....jumping out at you....just click it!!!!!

Re:Teamviewer... euh, why would you use that?

[MightyYar]

Yeah, I forgot about that. After futzing with ssh tunnels and figuring out how to start it up via the command line, then working around the keyboard issues, it STILL sucked in the performance department. I ended up running "Chicken of the VNC" instead until I settled on LogMeIn, then TeamViewer.