Unknown Shared User, a hacker?

Has anyone ever entered your home and used your network with a mac before?
Did you buy this second hand?
Did you ever send it in for repairs?

I wouldnt worry about it as being hacking. Just delete the account.

Message was edited by: Neoblackout

Do you use limewire or anything by anychance? sometimes some downloading applications will download things into the shared folder like folders or music ect ect. Is this "User" you're seeing just a named folder?

To remove accounts, just go to system prefrences>accounts> and just make sure the little lock at the bottom left is open and make your changes using the + and - buttons for adding and removing accounts.

Furthermore, you might want to go to system prefrences>sharing and make sure that you are the only one on the lists in these options. the users with 2 or 3 black heads are system accounts, best not touch those. but the ones with 1 are just human users. make sure youre the only one on those other htan the 2 and 3 headed accounts. If you want, you can also disable all those sharing options too

now that i think of it, theres actually quite a few applications that will create folders in the "shared" folder. have you downloaded any applications developed by anyone named kyoung-ho? or are you using a messenger service like MSN? it might be creating "share" folders between your contacts and you.

All in all, im not going to say "dont worry", but i will say theres a really low low low low low low low probability someone is hacking or using a virus. Usually if someone were to hack, they wouldnt leave their name neatly in the shared folder for you to find :P

Message was edited by: Neoblackout

I have exactly the same problem. The shared user in this case is called Thomson. I am connected to the internet via my wireless router which has a WEP key. When I login to the router to see who is connected to it, this "Thomson" does not appear. I can only see the computers in my household. I can connect to Thompson as a guest but see nothing.

I have no shared folders called Thomson so it is a mystery. In another thread, somebody suggested it could be Bonjour that allows it to connect. The only sharing I have enabled is printer and file. If I turn of printer sharing, Thomson is still there.

The shared user appears and disappears at different times of day. If anybody has an idea of how to get rid of it I'd love to know to.

rainsong23 wrote:
Hi,
I noticed something really strange. I have an unknown user listed under "Shared" when I go into the finder. I don't recognize the name, other than it's a Korean name 'kyoung-ho' and I don't know a kyoung-ho even though I live in Korea. Is it possible someone is trying to hack me? I'm wondering if I can or should delete this unknown user, and how?
Trevor

If you use any "filesharing" software, bit-torrent malware, etc., then you have given anyone and everyone in the universe access to your computer. If not, then your system has been compromised by your somehow allowing another user access.
Do you run your computer as an administrator all the time? That's an easy way for others to get control.

Of course it may be nothing, but from your description, it does seem that you have allowed your computer to be compromised.
Scan it with MacScan - remove all "sharing" malware, install LittleSnitch and see what happens.

It does not seem to be that. I checked the other computers on my home network and they see the same outside PC. How could all the computers be compromised? Looking at the firewall log for my Mac, I can only see connections from the IP addresses of computers I know.

I am trying Macscan to see what it says.

I have this "Thomson" guy on my Shared Sidebar as well. Clicking on it shows Connected as guest but no files and/or folders and no apparant activity. But as it shows Guest account in System preferences there doesn't seem to be a way of getting rid of Thomson. I am waiting to update to 10.5.6 but am holding off until this is cleared up. I also have "only" a WEP encryption key on my wireless and I wonder if I should upgrade this to WPA but I'm not sure how.

Are you connecting to the internet via Cable or DSL?

Seeing a name/computer in the Finder sidebar's 'SHARED' section is not an indication of a hacker. It is where computers that are broadcasting (shared services, Bonjour etc...) will appear. Since Cable internet is a shared network (unlike the point to point nature of DSL), I would expect it possible that other (unknown) computers/users might appear in that section.