Privacy, Security & Virus Information

Beware of door to door hackers

Difficult though it might be to believe, UK hackers are being warned to be on the look- out for computer hackers in the disguise of door to door salesmen who ease their way past the unsuspecting and innocent under the ploy of offering a fee virus check to their computer.

Anyone who remembers that long ago will remember being very suspicious of the door-to-door salesmen that arrived, trying to sell all kind of gadgets that could unblock your toilets, clean your dishes or fill your head with knowledge. In the best scenario your shelves were filled with volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica to impress your neighbours or in the worst, your toilet remained blocked up.

However in the digital age that we are, by and large, lucky to be living in, life isn't that simple. These virtual vagabonds don't have the decency even to sell you a software program that doesn't work. That would be too decent. Instead once they have gained access to their victim's computer they upload a bluff program that doesn't eradicate viruses.

Instead it opens every door to the computer's inner workings and welcomes every malware, botnet that you care to mention. On the upside they don't steal your credit card details. Because they have that already. When you bought the software.

While this is true tail and under normal circumstances there would be an element of humour attached to it, there is really no humour in cyber crime which is gradually reaching epidemic proportions across the globe.

The fact those hackers, or at least their disciples, who might even be unaware that they are accomplices in the crime, have the nerve to show their faces in public, and amply demonstrates that there is no end to their malice and greed.

The public at large have been warned by the national press and the major UK TV channels to keep these bogus computer experts at bay, and if possible, keep them amused till the property authorities arrive.

In general terms under no circumstance should a computer owner allow anyone they don't know to have access to their computer, to allow software programs and especially obscure anti-virus programs that can do a lot more damage than good?

The lessons to be learned are that owning a computer has its responsibilities and the only way that a person can protect them and the personal information is to install a powerful anti-virus software available on the market today, and that won't be turning up their doorstep any time soon.

 

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