The local CBS station I my area recently aired a story about a prominent university professor. The professor had saved well over $200,000 and put it in an E-trade account. After he and his wife returned from vacation, they found the e-trade account was at a little over $50,000 rather than the $200,000 they had left in it.
With a $150,000 loss they started asking questions, and found out that while they were away hackers had managed to get into their account, get their passwords, and transfer money from their e-trade account into what e-trade thought was their personal bank account, out what actually was an account for the hackers.
Technically under the terms of their agreement e-trade did nothing wrong, so this professor managed to lose almost all of his life savings in the blink of an eye. So how do things like this happen? How do hackers get into your computer and get your personal information such as passwords and bank account numbers?
The main problem is that most people don’t know what kind of protection they need for their home computer. Just like you put locks on the doors of your home to keep out potential criminals, you need to put locks on the doors to your computer.
There are three main things you can do to protect your computer against hackers.
- 1. Get good anti-virus software
- 2. Set up a firewall
- 3. Set up spyware protection
When my mother first got a computer she refused to do all of these things thinking she was not the type of person that people would target, and she wasn’t doing anything on the Internet worth targeting. Truth be told, if you access any of your bank information, stocks, or other personal info online then you are a potential target and should set up some sort of protection for yourself and others who use the computer network in your home.