jaylar
I’ve stated this before, but it can not be overstated; whatever can be hacked will be hacked. For safety, unplug everything from your computer when you are not using it. Disconnect from the Internet when you close down.
If you feel jumpy, immediately disconnect or put the computer on ‘airplane mode’.
What you have to understand is that it is not that hard for someone to hack into your computer.
If, for example, you are disconnected from the Internet while you are typing articles, than no one can hack into your computer.
It is like having a phone with no SIM card or battery.
You finish writing, you connect, you post, then disconnect.
Any hacker will find you too annoying to bother with and move on to someone else.
There’s said to be an easy way of determining if something can be hacked.
Q: Is it on?
A: It can be hacked.
Corollary: Unless you dismantle an electronics item and completely remove anything that could have power, it is never truly off.
If you have no Internet then the person must physically be with the computer.
That’s where social hacking comes in, which is far more common than the sort of hacking you see in media. Ring up the person in front of the computer and con them into giving you what you need. It’s rather effective and, on the whole, easier.
In early days; (going back to the late 80s early 90s, one had to know how to operate a computer, how to do basic programming, and with only BBS available, in a small population of computer literate, hacking, though physically simpler was not as easy. This is because it was not a situation where one turned on the computer, and was instantly connected.
With the Introduction of Windows ’95 and its later versions, coming prepacked on a computer, even the most illiterate could point and click.
Hence the kind of simple scams which existed pre-computer have been implemented post computer.
I recall in the late 90s a banner…’You won!” pop up and physically restraining someone who knew nothing about computers from clicking it.
The fact is, the majority of people today are computer illiterate and the ease of Internet access makes hacking too easy.
The situation is getting worse, too.
The situation is worse because people who know nothing about computers, hacking, scam, can get onto the ‘Net so easy, and dump so much info.
Sadly true. Even worse, many seem to lack an ability to judge stuff on the internet for whether or not it’s true.
People don’t understand how dangerous it is, sitting safely at home, they don’t realise on the Internet they are walking down main street naked.