So i’m currently in a paranoid state right now. Earlier this morning, while I was working on my personal PC, my pointer just started moving on its own. At first I thought it was something with my mouse (maybe the sensor is dirty or something) so I blew on it. However, I noticed that it was still moving in a very human-like circular motion even without it touching any surface. Like how you would move it when you’re warming up your hand to use your PC.
I immediately pulled the mouse cord but it wouldn’t stop. Suddenly it right-clicked on its own, and I saw it was about to click on refresh when I just decided to pull the LAN cable. It was still moving for a few seconds even after the Internet connection was terminated (kept moving it to disrupt whatever the pointer was doing). Once it finally stopped, I did everything I could think of. I disconnected my webcam, cleared my browser history and saved passwords, uninstalled all the stuff I can think of that might have the virus. I did a quick scan, a full scan, and then a custom scan for each of my drives using windows defender. I uninstalled all the VPNs I had installed. I even changed the mouse I was using. I kept my PC disconnected to the Internet for atleast an hour before I decided to connect it again.
Nothing happened since then, I think my mouse was just bugging out but I still can’t get the thought that maybe someone is controlling my PC remotely. Maybe they gave up after trying to do something in my PC without success and might try again next time. I just need help or information regarding this experience.
Any advice on what I should do or look for?
It’s probably dirty or you just need a new mouse.they break sometimes
Can you contact your antivirus software/subscription company’s tech support? Some of them help if you have an active infection. Most of them have online support or support forums even if they don’t offer real-time phone support.
Another thing to check is to disable Remote Desktop Protocol so that’s not being used as a source of an attack.
Are there any other users near you? Could someone have accidently connected a Bluetooth mouse to your PC and they were wondering why it wasn’t showing up on theirs?
my PC doesn’t have a wireless/Bluetooth driver though
Honestly if you’re too unsure, backup your data and reinstall windows fresh from a USB. Full scan with windows defender and be careful what you click and only download what you absolutely trust next time. I don’t see any reason why they’d want to move your mouse around since I’d presume they’d wanna probably steal your info and dip unnoticed. This means either they are a complete noobie or doing it to mess with you and already have what they want. Up to date malware could steal your info easily.
Maybe you could sort by network to check what is using upload/download more in the task manager?
Had the same freak out only to realize my mouse was doing this to notify me of low battery.
If there’s something strangeIn your neighborhoodWho you gonna call?
If there’s something weirdAnd it don’t look goodWho you gonna call?
If it were me I’d have wiped immediately >.> but I keep many backups
There are a lot of conditions and circumstances that could cause this with nothing nefarious going on. If you are on the latest Windows 10 or 11 and use any newer mouse that has its own software (RGB or rebinding with iCUE or Synapse for instance), the device (in part) is actually virtualized by Windows for safety reasons (and to allow the mouse to store profiles internally) and this can create strange delays or stutters at times depending on a lot of things. Or depending on your system resource load, USB input can halt entirely and “queue” your movement up in a sort of buffer so that when it frees up the CPU and system it will perform those movements after a delay of up to a few seconds. This is compounded depending on so many other things like if you were in a full-screen, GPU-heavy app or hi-def stream, RDP/VNC running, etc. If Windows or your mouse software was updating in the background, that’s another possibility of what could look like ghost movement or mismatch between your hand and the pointer.
However, if you were “fighting” against it and did have control but felt like another person also was in real-time control and/or it was doing this and autonomously clicking things 15-30 seconds after you took your hand off, that is a bit more concerning. As a minimum, you could make sure to disable any remote connections and remote support, close those ports in your firewall, and run a full Malwarebytes scan. The nuclear option is a Windows Reset, which will keep photos and documents but reset Windows back to stock. The thermonuclear option is a fresh Windows install via USB, sending the whole HDD back to Day One.
It does sound like how you’re describing it. But I was fighting against it and it still was moving around. So yes, it is a bit concerning. It hasn’t happened for a while now, I’ve been using my PC the entire day since it last happened. I’ll disconnect my LAN connection before I shut down tonight just to be extra careful.
Thank you! I’ll keep all of this in mind.
Does it happen only when *your PC is connected to the Internet? If so, you may have installed a RAT that has granted a hacker remote access to your PC.
The next time it happens, disconnect from the Internet and see it the problems persists.