Tips and Hints from a Guy who learned the hard way
Have you ever had a situation where you thought you were doing everything you can to prevent a problem only to discover that you've totally screwed up due to lack of knowledge? Well - that's pretty much my story when it comes to finding ways to protect my laptop from others who take advantage of my incompetence and stole a ton of my private information and nearly drained my bank account in a period of three hours.
What you're going to read is 100% true and an event that happened to me about a year ago while I was traveling on business. The names have been removed to protect the retarded - in this case; me.
When I purchased my laptop computer two years ago, I thought that it came with the best virus protection software available - Norton's SSL security and anti-virus protection. The truth is that like most laptops purchased these days it included a 'basic' program which only provided me a few 'free' protection programs and if I wanted to 'discover the full potential of the security suite' it would cost me a nice chunk of cash for the online upgrade.
Well unfortunately for the Norton folks, I am not feeble minded and the Jedi-Mind Trick does not work on me so I chose to decline the offer to upgrade my security software. This was my first mistake.
I was sitting at the airport in Las Vegas when I signed onto the free Wi-Fi connection. I decided I needed to pay my car payment online while my flight to Chicago was delayed for an hour - apparently for the pilots to grab another drink or something. I did my normal thing of typing in my information, including my bank account information such as my routing number, bank address, account number and even my social security number for the log-in information. I processed the payment and thought everything was cool.
I then logged onto an online website to buy some tickets for a sporting event I was going to attend in Chicago in day #2 of my trip. No problem, just enter your name, address, phone number and credit card info - just like I've done hundreds of times before. Again, there was nothing new here - same thing I've done a ton of times prior.
I got on the plane 35 minutes later, arrived in Chicago and turned on my phone to check my email. When my phone loaded, I was bombarded by about 12 emails from my credit card company and my bank asking me to approve the purchases totaling $6,878.43. Needless to say, I was a bit ticked off. Fortunately, my bank and credit card companies are very good about identity theft and blocked nearly all of the transactions. But, it also blocked use of my primary credit card that I used to reserve my hotel room, car rental and buy those tickets.
This created a huge mess. So, what could I have done to prevent this from happening in the first place?
I could have used an affordable product like one I eventually found called Comodo TrustConnect. This product keeps your information private while you are on a public internet session. This wireless security software is designed to keep the information you are typing on your computer inaccessible from hackers whose primary job in life is to be low-life scum who steal people's private information.
It also is cool because it basically creates a protective shield around your total computer, smart phone or any other wireless device you can use so no matter what you're entering onto your mobile device - the information will STAY on your device and won't put you in the same boat I was in previously.
Remember, no matter where you're at that has a public WiFi feed that you connect to; the hotel, coffee shop, airport, airplane even at home - if you do what I did and not take the extra measure to protect your computer from this type of hack, you might set yourself up for the same hassles I had to go through. The Comodo programs are great ones, but please make sure you find something to protect your computer and other mobile devices from hackers like the ones who took valuable information from me.
Learn from my stupidity....and protect your mobile device to ensure this doesn't happen to you.
What you're going to read is 100% true and an event that happened to me about a year ago while I was traveling on business. The names have been removed to protect the retarded - in this case; me.
When I purchased my laptop computer two years ago, I thought that it came with the best virus protection software available - Norton's SSL security and anti-virus protection. The truth is that like most laptops purchased these days it included a 'basic' program which only provided me a few 'free' protection programs and if I wanted to 'discover the full potential of the security suite' it would cost me a nice chunk of cash for the online upgrade.
Well unfortunately for the Norton folks, I am not feeble minded and the Jedi-Mind Trick does not work on me so I chose to decline the offer to upgrade my security software. This was my first mistake.
I was sitting at the airport in Las Vegas when I signed onto the free Wi-Fi connection. I decided I needed to pay my car payment online while my flight to Chicago was delayed for an hour - apparently for the pilots to grab another drink or something. I did my normal thing of typing in my information, including my bank account information such as my routing number, bank address, account number and even my social security number for the log-in information. I processed the payment and thought everything was cool.
I then logged onto an online website to buy some tickets for a sporting event I was going to attend in Chicago in day #2 of my trip. No problem, just enter your name, address, phone number and credit card info - just like I've done hundreds of times before. Again, there was nothing new here - same thing I've done a ton of times prior.
I got on the plane 35 minutes later, arrived in Chicago and turned on my phone to check my email. When my phone loaded, I was bombarded by about 12 emails from my credit card company and my bank asking me to approve the purchases totaling $6,878.43. Needless to say, I was a bit ticked off. Fortunately, my bank and credit card companies are very good about identity theft and blocked nearly all of the transactions. But, it also blocked use of my primary credit card that I used to reserve my hotel room, car rental and buy those tickets.
This created a huge mess. So, what could I have done to prevent this from happening in the first place?
I could have used an affordable product like one I eventually found called Comodo TrustConnect. This product keeps your information private while you are on a public internet session. This wireless security software is designed to keep the information you are typing on your computer inaccessible from hackers whose primary job in life is to be low-life scum who steal people's private information.
It also is cool because it basically creates a protective shield around your total computer, smart phone or any other wireless device you can use so no matter what you're entering onto your mobile device - the information will STAY on your device and won't put you in the same boat I was in previously.
Remember, no matter where you're at that has a public WiFi feed that you connect to; the hotel, coffee shop, airport, airplane even at home - if you do what I did and not take the extra measure to protect your computer from this type of hack, you might set yourself up for the same hassles I had to go through. The Comodo programs are great ones, but please make sure you find something to protect your computer and other mobile devices from hackers like the ones who took valuable information from me.
Learn from my stupidity....and protect your mobile device to ensure this doesn't happen to you.
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