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Recently, I've had both my Visa debit then my Visa credit cards compromised and unapproved payments attempted to be made on them (my bank caught them first, called me then stopped my cards). These occurred approximately 3 weeks apart.

I'm fairly paranoid about online security so I use LastPass and PayPal is directly hooked into my bank account.

I also changed my LastPass master password after the first breach and ran a full Spybot & NOD32 scan of my computer, with no adverse results.

Now that I've had another breach on a different card, I'm concerned about other things hiding on my computer or something else.

What steps should I take now that I've been compromised again? Should I do a full OS format of my computer? Is there anything else I can do to mitigate the chances of this happening again?

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    How were they compromised? You got a virus, got skimmed while eating out, cards were stolen? If you did not have those numbers stored on your computer, chances are high that some merchant was compromised and lost your numbers...think TJ Maxx.
    – KCotreau
    Jun 7, 2011 at 3:47
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    I swear by HiJackThis. It's not really an antivirus program, but it shows all the best places nasty stuff likes to hide and what's in there. Download HiJackThis from free.antivirus.com/hijackthis and run it. Export the log file and add it to your answer. Keep in mind that it's not a list of infections, it's a list of where infections like to hang out. Most if not all of the stuff in the log will be part of Windows or device drivers, with some stuff thrown in by harmless programs.
    – TuxRug
    Jun 7, 2011 at 3:59
  • off-topic and not a real question are the reasons for closing - in its current form, the not a real question makes it off-topic - please see the FAQ
    – studiohack
    Jun 7, 2011 at 4:02
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    I use that a lot too Tuxrug, but most users could not read the output to save their lives. I really thought this was going to be off-topic by the way the question was phrased, but I answered because it does cover practical PC security.
    – KCotreau
    Jun 7, 2011 at 4:02
  • @studiohack: I don't know what else you want. I have no idea how they were compromised. Only that fraudulent transactions were attempted on them. What else do you want to make this on-topic?
    – Alastair Pitts
    Jun 7, 2011 at 5:23

1 Answer 1

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Runs scans with Malware Bytes and Superantispyware (I love Spybot, but it is just not good enough now). If they come back negative, you are probably clean. Change your passwords as you did.

I will regurgitate the answer I just gave to another question in response to your what should you do to mitigate the chances of it happening again:

You need to keep your computers patched (Windows Update and browser plugins up-to-date http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/ ...works for most browsers), and protected with anti-virus.

Most attacks happen from the inside, because you have not properly maintained your computer, and you get a virus.

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