It’s Halloween season. The spirits are out. Maybe they’re in your computer. Maybe they’re pirates. Believe it, they are as cunning as Jack Sparrow. Today, the pirates are cybercriminals and they are scheming to get into your computer. They want to take over your account, your identity. They want to steal or sabotage your company’s sensitive data. They exfiltrate and you don’t know until it’s too late. We know its true, but are we doing the necessary things now to keep the computer spirits away? The real question is whether you know their tricks and if you slip up to fall into their trap. Can you sail the high seas without being victimized, or sunken.
Have you caught yourself doing any of these things because your computing experience is haunted? Here are some signs trouble lurks.
- You grimace at the screen because it hangs.
- You run task manager to monitor memory and processor consumption. With it, you’re examining its performance applications, processes tabs, looking at the stack ranking of CPU and Memory app gluttons.
- You close apps to free up memory. You reboot again.
- You use Windows XP. Did you know Windows XP has its end of life in April 2014? You’re haunted by the malware spirits.
- You call helpdesk services again and it’s not for password lockout.
- You’re seething with jealously because co-workers with newer machines breeze through heavy processor tasks or are multi-tasking with many more apps than you dare run.
- You missed a critical deadline, then you make a sheepish comment to team members that you need more time to get those edits done, while under your breath you mutter that you wish you didn’t need to reboot again.
- You sigh when presented with an opportunity to download and install a new app.
- You observe too many maintenance warning reminders that pop up on your screen.
- You want to detonate it, like the Duck Dynasty Peterson family does to their cars or old hunting blinds that need retirement.
- You pick up a kindle or a book to read, rather than look at the computer screen any longer.
- You talk to your computer like a pirate. Aaarrrgghhh!
Maybe you do other things when your machine runs like its haunted. If so, please share them here. We’d love to read about them.
I wrote an eBook for ways to cut risks of getting hacked by the computer haunts. Check it out here: http://go.honestintentions.com/ebook/
