Hi,

I don't know if I have been hacked or not and even if this should be a concern.

My laptop is running XP Pro SP3

I have always set all my files and folders not to be hidden. Please don't respond explaining how to unhide files and folder in windows explorer as I know how to do that.

Every time I do use windows explorer it will tell you info like how many files are hidden files. Well, last week for the first time using this laptop, windows explorer revealed that I had a number of hidden files.

I have searched everywhere and I know the exact location. I am logging onto a company server to retrieve email and log into other functions required by my job. So in my user profile directory there is a sub directory called "cookies" that is now hidden. Inside this folder is a file called Index.dat" that is also hidden. I can not change the hidden value or delete the index.that file, whether through windows explorer or in a dos command, from the command prompt.

Have I been hacked? Do I need to concern myself with this?
A couple of weeks ago our mail server started sending out a huge amount of spam that was sent to me, by myself? It contained stupid porno references, the kind of garbage that would normally be sent to my quarantine mail folder. We are using outlook.

I do not have an administrator account for my laptop. Should I notify my admin? If I don't have to raise any questions the better I feel. After the last deal with spam emails I really don't want to annoy the admin any more than I have to.

I appreciate any help.

Thanks,
John

So in my user profile directory there is a sub directory called "cookies" that is now hidden. Inside this folder is a file called Index.dat" that is also hidden. ...Have I been hacked? Do I need to concern myself with this?
No, these are standard files used by Internet Explorer. If you think your laptop has been compromised have an Admin look at it before messing with it. Nothing pisses us off more than having to "fix" something an end-user breaks because they started deleting stuff without knowing what the f they were doing.

A couple of weeks ago our mail server started sending out a huge amount of spam that was sent to me, by myself?

Yes, I have too. If you look at the mail headers, the origin is from random addresses worldwide, probably a botnet.