Shooting the Breeze: Holding your PC to ransom
We've all heard of viruses, spam, even spyware. Now a Rochdale nurse has had her PC files hijacked and held to ransom.
The Manchester Evening News reports an unusual story which just illustrates the lengths that some criminals will go to exploit unsuspecting users of the internet.
There is also a BBC version of this story.
The story shows just how important it is to have internet security software running on your PC (anti-virus, firewall, anti-spam, anti-spyware) although an awareness of current scams is also advisory.
What's more important for every computer user regardless of whether or not they use the internet is a backup strategy.
Backing up important information is something that hardly anyone pays attention to until they have lost all their important files.
This can happen due to a mechanical problem such as a hard drive failing or it could be due to computer viruses such as the one described in the earlier-mentioned stories. It could even be due to a mistake by the owner of the files who drags them to the trash and empties it by mistake.
Files can be backed up to floppy disks, burnt to CD or DVD, saved onto memory sticks, external hard drives, and I know of some people who have home networks and servers with tape backup.
Yes, it can be a chore spending hours planning and performing backups. But take it from someone who has experienced a few hard drive failures in his time - it's WORTH IT!
