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My iMac with Tiger 10.4 has been hacked for about a year now.  I think it is just one guy doing it.  I was hacked for a couple of years once before, and I got all upset and sought justice and reported it, and demanded answers, and found out nobody really gave a crap.  So this time I decided to save myself the aggravation and just try to live with it.  I am a full-time freelance writer and I have to have a computer.  I live mostly on disability and can't run out and buy a new one. 

The hacker and I had some bad moments and even some good ones.  Lately it is all bad.  He hacked my little 17-incher because Tiger 10.4 make good servers and that's what he does.  He was using so much CPU's my whole desk was shaking and reverberating.  I make a habit of going to activity monitor and killing the worst processes, but I can't do it all day every day.  I told him he was killing the computer, and now he finally has.  There is a whisper of memory left.  He spent this week tossing overboard every application and all my files.  His, he mostly kept. 

I have gone literally nuts trying to get this box back from him.  I studied Unix but he made sure that my shells on the BSD are all read-only.  I can't erase and re-install because he damaged my installation disk and I haven't gotten a new one yet, although he would do the same thing again.  Disk utility says it can't fix it.  I am writing this on a Linux CD I am able to use because as of yesterday he has locked me out of my own computer.  I tried to download password crackers, but the instructions are just too complicated for me.  I must say though, I have learned plenty about computers since this started.  I catch him at a lot of his tricks.

This man is very, very clever and he is bright.  For a while there when we lived under a peace treaty, my idea, I almost thought we could be friends.  But now he has gone nuts.  How long does he think he can keep me out of a computer that is sitting on my desk?

The worst part of it all is that I have lost the respect of my children, ages 20 and 23.  They carted me off to the psych ward because they say my computer is not hacked, I just don't know anything about computers.  Everything, says my son, is exactly the way Apple sent it from the factory.  Sure, with 11 compressed Tiger 09 classic operating systems.  They put those in every single computer, don't they?  He took over my printer for his workgroup and doesn't let me use it.  But that's a moot point now that he has tossed it overboard too.

He writes me these very strange ranting notes that make almost no sense.  He snoops on every single thing I do.  I recently found his files of all my contacts with their e-mail and street addresses.  I hate to think what he's planning to do with those.  He even hacks my place of employment and posts business correspondence on the desktop.  He reads every single e-mail I get, and posts some of those up.  He is obsessed with my every movement.

I told him I wouldn't try to turn him in and I have kept my promise.  He has now cost me a career I can no longer do without dependable access to a computer, and a computer that I paid over a grand for.  He also cost me several lucrative writing deals, one was several books. 

Where do I go from here?  How do I get in my computer?  How do I erase all the crap he's stocked up in their and wipe him out so he'll get the hell out and leave me alone?  I think I did have a bit of a breakdown when I went to the hospital, and I may be about to have another.  All I do every day is obsess about getting my computer back.  I live alone and don't socialize much.  My computer was my whole world. 

Thanks for listening. 

MsRefusenik

That's a pretty heavy story.

As rvs said, counter-hacking seems pretty futile.
I would re-install, I don't see how he could immediately get you back. It sounds like he has some client-side progs calling stuff out to him. Once that's gone, and you change IP's and what not, I don't see how he can easily get back?
Ofcourse, after such an install, lock your box up as hard as you can before plugging it back into Ethernet

For the install: you still have physical access to the computer, and in my mind that can conquer any remote access. Usage of a live CD with install option seems the thing to do?

In any case: your current situation can not continue. Being unable to work and exposing all your personal information (and that of your contacts), is absurd. Pull the Ethernet cable out of there till you figure out something else to do.

This is just a newbie's advice, but I hope it helps.

EDIT: And yes, definitely change your nick. As Rvs points out, it's very easy to find information on you.

Why? Doesn't your entire desk shake when you use a high percentage of your CPU?

Google the OP a bit. There are some other pretty outrageous stories out there...

@dynamik

I just would never expect a hacker being so obssessed with maintaining access to an ordinary user. and this note exchanging? wow!

I'm baffled If you use it for writing mostly then just unplug the Ethernet cable and let someone fix it when you can miss it for a day or so.

I also don't understand why someone you don't know would be so obsessed with owning your computer.

chris, i was thinking the same thing.   

and yet still waiting for an answer/update...

Ketchup
I actually searched to post the other 2 threads I remember, but couldn't find them.

But like I said, one was the Whores one, I think the other was the Red X in a Box for images.