Digital hygiene: Do you have it?

So your computer has ground to a halt, has it? It either won't load programs properly or you have time to cook a meal while it boots. Surprise! Some of the things you have done to FIX it may have crippled it!

An agent in our office recently had a computer crash, and she asked my son (a computer tech professional) to look at it. She wanted him to "save it" or advise her to simply throw it away. What he found was shocking. To be fair, it was not so shocking to my son, the professional, because he had seen such messes before. Finding out she had several HUNDRED viruses and spyware programs crippling, and finally crashing, her computer was shocking to the owner, though. 

Some of the malware programs on the computer were actually capturing screenshots. The screenshots included invoices and credit card numbers from online purchases.

Many of the "bad" programs were things she had actually downloaded and installed ON PURPOSE, because they were freeware purporting to be virus protectionor anti-spyware. They were the opposite, actually opening doors for numerous spyware programs and trojans to have ready access to her computer.  To complicate matters, she had continued to click on links and download freeware in an effort to rescue her dying machine as things spiraled downward. Had the computer's owner actually been paying for the hours my son spent cleaning the computer, it would have been a bad deal. That much money certainly would have been better spent on a new computer. But the owner really wanted her data, including family photos, salvaged.

"Does someone in your house gamble online?" my son asked her.

"Absolutely not!" she retorted.

Since some of the screenshots he had cleaned off of the computer were, indeed, from online gambling sites, her denial left three scenarios. 1) Her computer had been hacked and was being used as a bot, a not unlikely situation since the compromised computer was hooked up to DSL day and night. 2) Somebody using the computer visited those sites before she purchased it--also possible because my co-worker had purchased a used computer. 3) A guest or someone living in the house had gone to the gambling sites without the knowledge of its present owner. In any case, the gambling activity had left spyware behind.

My fellow agent insisted on paying my son, and he finally did accept a nominal amount. The lesson in computer hygiene had been relatively cheap for my co-worker, and all of her data and precious photos had been saved. In truth, most computer shops would simply have TOLD her that the data could not be saved (lied to her, in other words), wiped the hard drive, reformatted, reinstalled Windows, and presented her with an invoice and a clean computer.

I learned four things:

1. Buy professional software and let the professionals worry about security. BUY REAL SOFTWARE, especially if you don't really know what you are doing. When you take your computer to the shop to have it fixed, that invoice you end up paying will, most likely, also include the price of a professional anti-virus software package. Wouldn't you have been better off paying for it in the first place?

2. Don't buy a used computer unless you have someone "F disk" it (and F disk any computer you sell or give away). A used computer may already have a resident bot (robot that can remotely control it and/or steal bandwidth). A bot-infested computer can be used in criminal enterprises without the owner's knowledge.

3. Don't gamble online (all file sharing sites--and need I even mention porno sites--can also be dangerous hang-outs). It just makes sense that criminal types may frequent those sites, so you are hanging with a potentially bad crowd when you have the door open in those neighborhoods.

4.  Use a firewall, especially if you are on a network or DSL. Your computer has a two-way street going into it and out of it, even when you are not actually using it. That freeway may be open both ways, and you don't even know it. A firewall blocks unwanted traffic.

As real estate agents, we live and die professionally through our computers, so why take the risk of unsafe digital hygiene.

PS: I have AVAST Professional on my computer--not the free version, but the paid version that includes firewall, anti-spyware, and anti-adware. Guess who advised me that I need all three...