Being hacked is the single biggest fear of most computer users. Many believe the first sign of strange behavior or errors on their PC is a sign hackers have taken control. But are hackers really inside your machine, stealing your information? Or should we be on the lookout for more subtle signs? What does being hacked really look like?
Oh no, it’s this time of the year when Microsoft is releasing new updates… This time it’s called Windows 10 October 2018 update and it seems to be the worst quality update ever! There are numerous reports about documents and pictures disappearing after installing it.
Did you get logged out of Facebook on Friday? Did it ask you to type your password again? It’s because 50 million people got hacked. I noticed it on my own computer and phone and thought it was strange. Apparently, Facebook logged out many customers to protect their accounts.
In the last couple of years, I’ve seen a dozen or so computers that Windows 10 just doesn’t like… they would work ok for a while and then after system updates, refuse to boot. In most cases, they will freeze on Windows 10 logo just before it shows the login screen. After a few forced restarts, Windows would try to do automatic repair and it usually fails. Even System Restore doesn’t help, either failing with random errors or having been disabled altogether – thanks, Microsoft!
In the last few weeks, we’ve seen many people bringing their computers with almost exactly the same problems – freezing, slow booting of Windows, programs taking a minute or two to start… Some people even said they can make a cup of coffee while waiting for their computer turned on! The problem turned out to be the same and we managed to fix all computers, making them several times faster. This is what was happening…
Email has allowed us to send and receive messages more easily than ever before. While this is a good thing, it can lead to problems. You may receive dozens or even hundreds of emails in a day. At this point, it feels like you’re wasting your entire day dealing with those incoming messages. Even worse, it makes it difficult to find important messages in your inbox. You can quickly become overloaded with emails. So how can we deal with this overload? The first step is to reduce the number of emails you receive overall and there are a few ways to do this.
Like many valuable things we buy, new computers suffer from wear and tear over time. Our computers are particularly vulnerable as we have placed more and more demands on them every year. New machines have got faster, quieter, more reliable, and more capable over time. At the same time our own computers have begun to slow and sometimes even stop performing altogether.
If you want cyber crooks to stalk your online activities, collect your passwords and sensitive financial information, hold hostage all your personal files or harness your computer for any number of nefarious activities, then you should follow these five steps. They’ll get malware on your computer in no time.
Of course, nobody wants any of these so read this and don’t do it!
Getting new computers for your home or business is exciting, but what happens to the old ones? Depending on the age, some people sell them, others throw them out. That’s the easy part. The problem is the sensitive data on them. There are passwords, account numbers, browser history, personal documents and pictures… If you run a business, you might also have license keys, customer details, medical information, tax returns… well, pretty much everything! Each computer, whether laptop, tablet or desktop, contains a treasure trove of sensitive information that cyber-criminals would love to get their hands on.
Microsoft Office has been THE office suite for more than a decade, whether it’s for business or students doing their homework. Other applications have come and gone, but it’s expected that most people will be doing their work in Word, Excel or PowerPoint. While you may have an older version of Office that you love, there are three good reasons you should upgrade to Office 365.
