Computer question

[Disappointered]

Hi, if anyone good with computers/IT could help I'd appreciate it, although I'm worried I already know the answer.

Firstly, if I right click on a file and open Properties to see when it was last accessed, what will it be telling me? Is it accessed by right clicking? By some sort of update? By a steam account or video game?

I'm worried someone who just came over tonight who is supposedly a friend but someone I'm not sure I can trust may have just downloaded my computer files onto a usb. He called and said he needed to download pc reboot because he needs to reboot his laptop. He was trying to update linux and something went wrong. He came over and put in two usbs. I guess one was for the pc reboot and the other was for manjoro. But really...he could have been downloading my files, right?

 

[Life_and_Death]

How long was he there? The amount of time it would take to download EVERYTHING, he would have had to be there for a little bit

 

[Deleted member 1465]

Firstly, if I right click on a file and open Properties to see when it was last accessed, what will it be telling me? Is it accessed by right clicking? By some sort of update? By a steam account or video game?

I'm not sure that would help. As you say, the file could have been last accessed by any number of applications.

How long was he there? The amount of time it would take to download EVERYTHING, he would have had to be there for a little bit

Indeed. If he wasn't on there for long he would have had to know what he was looking for and where it was. Downloading lots of stuff onto USB would take a long time and a bit of searching.

 

[Life_and_Death]

Indeed. If he wasn't on there for long he would have had to know what he was looking for and where it was. Downloading lots of stuff onto USB would take a long time and a bit of searching.

Husband taught me computer stuff :) glad I could finally put it to some use lol.

It could be paranoia. I get this a lot about different things (not saying it didn't he open just that this is a possiblitiy)

 

[GrumpyFrog]

Last accessed property on a file changes both when a person opens it, and when it is accessed by the system or other software, say for an update. It however doesn't change when someone copies a file without opening it.

Copying everything you've got on a USB would probably be impossible, it just wouldn't fit. If you're worried your friend copied specific files deliberately, knowing what he was looking for, there might be a way to know depending on the system you're using and what files those are.

But my first question would be what he would be copying them for?

 

[Disappointered]

Okay, he was downloading for a few minutes, hard to say because we were talking a bit and watching tv, maybe half an hour.

Re why would he copy them, perhaps to use it against me or just to try to read my diary or emails
We had some tensions that led to a decline in the "friendship" over the last few months and he hadn't called me back for a month until yesterday. I also know he is not above doing certain unethical things such as cheating on a gf or wife. He told me once that he found out one of his past gfs had been reading his emails so then he hacked into hers.

 

[GrumpyFrog]

He told me once that he found out one of his past gfs had been reading his emails so then he hacked into hers.

Unless by "hacked" he means "knew her password" or "got in on a device after she didn't log out", I'd call BS on this one. It's not that easy to hack into someone's email.

If you're worried about him reading your emails, they are not saved anywhere on your computer, unless you specifically save them in text files yourself. Technically he could get into your mailbox if you left him alone for a while with your computer and you never log out of your account, but copying everything into text files or making screenshots to save your emails would be a tedious and time-consuming task that I don't think would be worth it for him, so I have no idea what would he need a USB drive for if he just wanted to read those. As for the diary, it's harder to tell. Do you have it in a plaintext file in some obvious location (say "Documents" folder)?

 

[Disappointered]

Yes, the diary is in libre office and was stored in documents folder.
I was also wondering why he needed to use my computer because his current wife has one.
I think they have an additional desktop as well. I know his wife's laptop is a mac but would that make any difference? He's downloading off the internet and storing on a usb stick.

 

[GrumpyFrog]

Yes, the diary is in libre office and was stored in documents folder.

Well, that is not very good. And I suppose it wasn't password-protected, was it?

I was also wondering why he needed to use my computer because his current wife has one.
I think they have an additional desktop as well. I know his wife's laptop is a mac but would that make any difference? He's downloading off the internet and storing on a usb stick.

Macs are notoriously...how do I put it mildly...tricky when it comes to compatibility with any hardware or software that wasn't made by Apple. From what you're saying I suppose your friend messed up his whole operating system and is trying to create a recovery USB stick, which might require a little more than just copying files and Mac might not be optimal for this task. So it isn't completely implausible that he needed your PC.

 

[checkouttime]

i don't know what this person could of been looking for ( i don't need to know either)

but i assume they would need to know where to look for it aswell. do you feel you have told this person,you have something on your computer they might want to get?(again no need to mention what it is)

 

[Disappointered]

No, no password.

Just worried that they might be resentful toward me resulting from ongoing tensions and decided to try to find info to use against me.

 

[MrBigSad]

As another user mentioned, last accessed means both by system and opening files. The easiest way to check it seems to me is to go to an old program or software you never use and see if it's been accessed (make sure it's not one in startup)

It may be they accessed some files but for them to download all software it would certainly take more than an hour (depending on if you've had it for long or not)

If they downloaded anything they probably used search function for the obvious like "diary" or "pass".

The only thing I can think of to really do is simply confront them about it in person if you are sure. Even sociopaths can come clean when given a straight forward confrontation.

Hope this helps.

 

[Disappointered]

Thank you for all your suggestions. Not sure if I will be capable of confrontation...anyway, there's nothing he could do with my diary except try to embarrass me. Maybe it was legitimate...I will probably never know.

 

[MrBigSad]

Thank you for all your suggestions. Not sure if I will be capable of confrontation...anyway, there's nothing he could do with my diary except try to embarrass me. Maybe it was legitimate...I will probably never know.

Sorry I forgot to mention. Go to file explorer then in the top right corner (search function) just press a letter and look at the drop down menu that pops up. Go through the keyboard letter by letter. This will show everything that's been searched for on your PC.

I doubt if they did steal information that they'd download everything it's far too inefficient. So you can probably see what they searched (if anything) by doing this.

 

[Disappointered]

Thanks :)