Are you concerned about the online safety of your family? Do you wish to protect your financial future? If so, wow, have I got a good deal for you: come to Republic Bank on September 25th and I will teach you how to keep the Internet bad guys out of your life, for free.
Not only that, but free, catered lunch will be served to all who attend. That’s right; September 25, at the downtown branch of Republic Bank, 401 W. Main, Norman, OK, in the Seminar Room, at 11:30 a.m., I will teach the new version of my class, “Fight The Internet Bad Guys and Win.” Seating is limited and cannot be guaranteed without a reservation. Call Hillary at 579-5443 to RSVP. If you’ve taken my class before, come take it again; a lot has changed in the past year. Visit my website or www.rbt.com/lunch-learn-dave-moore for more information.
Not only should you know how to keep the Internet bad guys out of your life, you should know what to do if the worst has already happened. What if you’ve already been hacked, but don’t know it? How do you find out?
Warning signs of a hacked computer include sluggish performance; programs or computer functions that no longer work properly; strange popups warning of impending doom from antivirus or computer “tune-up” programs you’ve never heard of, and other oddball programs appearing that weren’t there before. Other red flags can be disappearing files, or online accounts where your passwords no longer work. A hard drive light that is constantly flashing, even when you are not using the computer, can indicate unauthorized computer activity and should be checked out.
One surefire way of knowing something is wrong is discovering that you are emailing spam messages to everyone in your email address book. In this instance, it may not be your computer that’s been compromised, but your email account most definitely has. At this point, though, the safest thing to do is change all of your passwords and security questions for all of your online accounts, anyway.
You will also want to make absolutely, positively sure that your computer is clean and hacker-free. Often, the best way to do this is to backup your important files, erase your hard drive, reinstall your operating system and programs, and start over. It’s a big hassle, but it really is the only way to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that your computer is clean. In fact, this solution is standard practice at many large companies and government facilities. They don’t mess around; if they suspect any hacker invasion whatsoever, some of them will actually go so far as to physically remove and destroy the hard drive, put in a new one and start over. Drastic measures, to be sure, but very effective.
Another big problem these days is Internet bad guys breaking into corporate databases, stealing all the usernames and passwords, and then publishing the results on the Web for all the world to see. You may recall my recent column titled, “Man sues Yahoo for lousy password security.” This type of big-time identity theft is what his lawsuit is all about.
To date, almost 14 million email account passwords have been compromised this way. To help people assess their own situation, the good folks over at Avalanche Technology Group have started a website that lets you check to see if your email address is one of the 14 million. Visit https://shouldichangemypassword.com and have a look. Hopefully, you are OK. If not, follow their 10-step guide to once again lock the bad guys out.