Unsupportable: My Dad
There are so many stories I could tell about my dad's computer illiteracy, I could write a book (hey, there's an idea), but for now I will stick to the most recent one.
To start with, my dad is a CPA. He does people's taxes, among a great many other things. He used to keep all of his client's information as hard copy, storing it all in gigantic file cabinets. Then he discovered computers, and how he can save a lot of overhead if he kept those files in digital form. Here's where I come in. I have always been proficient with computers (and am now gainfully employed working with them), so when he has a problem, he usually calls me first, because I am free. Well, this one was a whopper. When he calls me, he tells me that Symantec <shudder> is putting messages all over his screen. I figure it's just pestering him to renew his subscription, so I say I'll come over and take a look at it. Well, when I get there, imagine my surprise when I see that Symantec has covered every available inch of the screen with warning messages, saying that it has blocked a program from sending email out. I ask him how long this has been going on, and he says since the last update. This disturbs me, because it means that this virus (I forget which one specifically, but a particularly rare one) has been operating for an unknown amount of time. It also bothered me what it was sending out. through some research, I found out that this particular data miner goes through and sends out the entire contents of the user's profile, as well as any files with specific extensions (I forget which). My dad's computer was pretty much the fileserver for his firm, and had a good 90% of all the files in his my documents folder. These files were full of client info, like SSN's, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and pretty much everything an identity thief might want. I tell him about what was going on, and how serious this could be. He just kind of shrugs it off like it doesn't matter. I read him the riot act about safe surfing, and not opening email attachments, the works. I clean the virus out, and tell him not to open executable files of any kind, and not to open attachments with extensions that he doesn't recognize. After all is said and done, (10 hours later) I walk out of his office and go home. He calls me 3 days later, saying it's doing it again. I told him to call his tech guy. I figure that if he has to pay for the guy to be there, he'll at least listen to him.
There are so many stories I could tell about my dad's computer illiteracy, I could write a book (hey, there's an idea), but for now I will stick to the most recent one.
To start with, my dad is a CPA. He does people's taxes, among a great many other things. He used to keep all of his client's information as hard copy, storing it all in gigantic file cabinets. Then he discovered computers, and how he can save a lot of overhead if he kept those files in digital form. Here's where I come in. I have always been proficient with computers (and am now gainfully employed working with them), so when he has a problem, he usually calls me first, because I am free. Well, this one was a whopper. When he calls me, he tells me that Symantec <shudder> is putting messages all over his screen. I figure it's just pestering him to renew his subscription, so I say I'll come over and take a look at it. Well, when I get there, imagine my surprise when I see that Symantec has covered every available inch of the screen with warning messages, saying that it has blocked a program from sending email out. I ask him how long this has been going on, and he says since the last update. This disturbs me, because it means that this virus (I forget which one specifically, but a particularly rare one) has been operating for an unknown amount of time. It also bothered me what it was sending out. through some research, I found out that this particular data miner goes through and sends out the entire contents of the user's profile, as well as any files with specific extensions (I forget which). My dad's computer was pretty much the fileserver for his firm, and had a good 90% of all the files in his my documents folder. These files were full of client info, like SSN's, credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and pretty much everything an identity thief might want. I tell him about what was going on, and how serious this could be. He just kind of shrugs it off like it doesn't matter. I read him the riot act about safe surfing, and not opening email attachments, the works. I clean the virus out, and tell him not to open executable files of any kind, and not to open attachments with extensions that he doesn't recognize. After all is said and done, (10 hours later) I walk out of his office and go home. He calls me 3 days later, saying it's doing it again. I told him to call his tech guy. I figure that if he has to pay for the guy to be there, he'll at least listen to him.
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