Pc stolen please help

Kazm2324 · 26 Jan 2019 at 13:14

my computer was stolen yesterday, it’s a full desktop pc with a gpu etc, but I’m worried my data etc is going to be breached and I have a lot of passwords on there for my bank etc, I have 2 drives in my computer and both are encrypted with 256 bit, but they were also smart enough to steal my notebook which convientely has my password in it, aswell as a back up usb stick. The ssd has windows 10 and the other drive is encrypted with veracrypt aswell but I made it so it was hidden according to windows.

The only password they don’t know is my windows login, will this save me or is it ridiculously easy for them to get past that? I’ve already contacted my bank etc .

Will they be able to get into my pc? No idea if they are hackers or not but let’s just assume the worst here. Thank you

Robzere31 · 26 Jan 2019 at 13:59

Just change your bank password along with any other login passwords to other sites. Also change your email login details, Windows login etc.

Randomface74 · 26 Jan 2019 at 14:07

Assume they'll get into it. Change all your passwords. Watch out for identity theft.
Hopefully they're just crackheads who'll wipe it and sell it once they realise they can't log in to any of your stuff.

dt97583 · 26 Jan 2019 at 17:11

Sounds like if they have the passwords then the 256 bit HDD encryption has been passed, and getting into Windows isn't particularly hard tbh. Best thing to do is as above and change all passwords on every site. Ideally use different passwords and on balance I personally advocate online password managers i.e. LastPass. You could argue the merits of this but I personally fall on the side of it offering enough benefit to outweigh the slight risk.

Even if you didn't fancy storing passwords in the cloud (notebook wasn't safe either though), then you should definitely look to enable MFA/2 factor authentication, especially where it's worth it e.g. email, PayPal, bank account etc. I'd also inform major institutions e.g. bank, Paypal etc. Also check statements and accounts with a close eye for the next few months.

Big Frank · 27 Jan 2019 at 14:45

Kazm2324 said:
The only password they don’t know is my windows login, will this save me or is it ridiculously easy for them to get past that?

They can bypass the windows login by taking the hard drive out and attaching it as a secondary drive to another computer running Windows.

Was the password in plain sight eg on the desktop or in another main folder?

Change your passwords immediately and give your bank a call.