Geeks2U | August Newsletter

Last month we talk about about the most common method for digital identity theft to occur - phishing. It may surprise you to know that the second most common way for identity theft to occur comes with unsafe computer use. This month we will cover that.

The truth of it is that protecting yourself isn't difficult, and all it really takes are a few simple steps.

How a Thief Can Get Your Data

Before we discuss how to protect yourself it's important to understand the main method a thief uses to get your information. Here are the four most common problems:

1. Someone Close to You Steals the Information: Unfortunately the most common way for identity theft to occur happens when someone you know uses your PC. Most of us do have personal information on our computers, and allowing others open access to it is a bad idea.
2. You Leave Personal Info on a Public PC: When you shop online you leave a digital fingerprint on the computer you are using. In other words that PC at the library may store your login information in the form of a cookie, and give a thief free access to your account(s).
3. Computer Viruses: Some computer viruses are intended solely to open up access to your computer to a hacker. The hacker can then access your files, and very likely all the information they need to steal your identity.
4. Skyward: A more recent method to steal personal information is through the use of skyward.

Protecting you and your PC

With an understanding of the most common ways that a thief may steal your information, let's talk about protecting yourself. It really isn't that difficult to secure yourself against this type of theft, and in fact there are four things you can do that match the four methods we just listed.

1. Keep personal folders and files password protected. Also ensure you never stay logged in to a computer you aren't using.
2. Never use public computers to shop online. If you use one to access any type of online account be sure to delete the browsing history, and all cookies before you leave the PC.
3. Keep an up to date anti-virus program on your PC. Macaffee, or Norton are two common programs that work well.
4. If you don't have the total security suite, that also protects you from spyware, get it.

Protecting your computer really isn't difficult. With four simple steps you have just helped to ensure that your personal information stays that way, and doesn't become your biggest headache!

For many of us, as we sit typing away on our ultra-modern, super fast, computers - we take for granted how everything just works. In fact, if something doesn't work the way it's supposed to we're so surprised that it often causes panic!

It's my admonition that we're somewhat spoiled. Word processing wasn't always this easy, and at one point most of them didn't work at all!

The term word processor was actually coined by IBM way back in the 1960's. At that point a word processor wasn't actually a computer, it was more of an automatic typewriter. These machines were unreliable, and if you didn't know how to use them properly could actually make the whole job harder.

By 974 the term word processor had become synonymous with a more computer-like machine. It was the Wang 1200 Word Processor, and it was an amazing piece of equipment. The machine stored up to 20 pages of text on a cassette tape. That tape could then be played back to a continuous form printer.

It wasn't until the 1980's that the first WYSIWYG tools were born, and laser printers become more common.

Since those first word processing tools were born the technology really has come a long way. The next time your word processor messes up, just remember: it wasn't always this easy!