Was my PC hacked or remotely accessed ?

I had left my PC running previous night with Torrent client window running . When i woke up i saw that the Torrent window was closed and three new folders(Containing family snaps) were open , also these folders had been copied to the desktop from the drive. Could the system have been compromised or hacked ?
I have windows XP SP2 installed . My Remote desktop was disabled but remote assistance was enabled ,

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Edit :
I have windows firewall enabled and am using an ADSL Router for net access . How do i check if my router is configured to let everything pass or not ?
I am installing Zone alarm too ...

Are you sure no one else was in your house? That just went on your computer?

And do virus/spyware scans to be safe.

Not enough information here to be sure of anything. I can make a few guesses and give some opinions though. The problem here is we don't know what hardware or software protection may be installed and we don't know how the computer is connected to the internet.

If you have DSL/cable, you are probably behind a NAT firewall/router. Unless the settings in it were set to pass everything to your computer, outside access would be cut off. Remote assistance in this case would not work even if you requested help. The required port would not be open in the firewall.

If the NAT firewall/router is set to pass everything through or you have a simple direct connect modem it may be possible. Now it is possible for someone to connect to the remote assistance. However, you have to allow access through remote assistance at a minimum , or you have to request remote asistance before anyone outside can do anything to your computer. At least that is how it is supposed to work.

I would still run all the usual virus and malware scans to be sure nothing is leaving a back door open anywhere. It is unlikely torrent did anything except do the job it was asked to do.

Could the system be compromised? Anything is possible. You could have had a trojan dormant on the system and you finally got the attention of the owner of the trojan by leaving the system on so long. Lots of things are possible because you don't know when the trojan might have been installed.

Even if you have an NAT firewall/router, you should also be running a good software firewall such as Zonealarm. The free version is good enough. This blocks outgoing traffic from unauthorized programs and prevents trojans and other malware from calling home or spreading.

Shadow Wolf