I let a stranger send email from my computer, what could that have done?

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could he have let her use a restricted guest account with UAC enabled and requiring password? apparently that could have been much more secure. not entirely though.

This machine can't be trusted any more.

She was on Internet. She could have pulled in and installed a key logger or some other program that calls home. Taking disk image would carry it along. Got to have an image before the incident.

Well, maybe there's a little bit of paranoia here! I used to teach Internal Control to finance students, and would ask them what, in general, is the result of a lapse in internal control, and got dozens of lurid replies. The answer is, in general, nothing; usually there are no consequences. Most of us have occasionally forgotten to lock the back door, and anything could have happened with that door unlocked, but did it? Only if you were very unlucky. Likewise, how many people are prowling around waiting to install keyloggers into unsuspecting person's computers? It's not something I've ever heard of. So I would say that it is 99.9% probable that she just wanted to send the e-mail, as she said.
Of course, if you're worried, do the checks Leo suggests; you could also run a process checker and look for suspicious activity or even do a system restore to a date before the incident. Check your browser history to see if she visited any web-sites; you would expect to see an email site like hotmail, yahoo or g-mail. But don't panic!

I would also suggest changing all passwords immediately and change your security questions & answers if you haven't already done so to prevent some further damage.

It is correct that this could well be perfectly innocent. But could this be another social engineering technique the baddies have dreamt up?
Presumably it would be successful until discovered- and quite probably for a long while afterwards. How many of us would have said no to a pretty girls cry for help?

Come on guys! Let's not be paranoid. I would think the bad guys would go for more efficient efforts to do a thing like this. Unless the subject is specifically targeted for some reason or another, I think chances are pretty negligible that there was a hienous intention in this young girl's action.

You've referred to an image backup a few times. What is it and how do you do it?

It all comes down to the question:

Is the glass half empty or half full?
Do you believe in the good in people or the bad?

I would have likely let her go ahead and use my lappy, but only after telling her if she minded if I watched her. If it is indeed innocent which I do believe it was, then she has nothing to worry about while I watch. Besides, it should be expected -- here you are asking me for help that you seem to need badly, and here I am giving it to you freely. Let me watch.

She wouldn't decline, and although im optimistic, I still would look over her shoulder, but in a polite way -- im not stupid. :)

In case you would need to let someone else(not necessarily untrusted) onto your computer who might have a contaminated medium they introduce to your computer or access something inadvertently, consider some precautions.
If you want to be really safe, commit to memory all your passwords, avoid saving user settings to the hard drive if possible, anything you must have access to consider putting on a flash drive for quick access. This also means your OS runs smoother -- and keeps you in control of what is running or not and what priority things are given. Of course, there is even the option to run applications(not sure about restrictions) from flash drives.

Couple with this series of suggestions, I add further: have a restricted set of operating your computer either with(1) a clamped down user account in WinXP Pro or a separate install disk for "public" access situations in which you reduce exposure to your file systems by running a trimmed version/operating mode
or (2) a different operating system.
Either options can be utilized via a secondary(or auxiliary) hard drive(separate and distinct physical object as opposed to a partition) or from a different partition on your hard drive.
Back to Leo's caveat: if it is not physically secure, it is not secure. There are ways to damage the hardware within software(OS or otherwise) operations. Keep an eye on your computer(it is your company) and know its every deed and keep it safe from outside persons' control as much as possible.

Just can't say no to young female, huh?. If she is flying, she can afford a few moments at the Internet kiosk. Should have asked if you could take her picture with your cell phone first. See how fast she walks away!

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