Are You Guilty? Top 10 Dumbest Things People Do with Their Computers
by
on June 30, 2009,
Today Support.com, the company that specializes in remote support, has published their list of top 10 strangest things that people do with their computers that lead to pitiful consequences for their personal machines. It looks like common sense is still the only way to avoid doing things like these yourself but anyway I think it’s worth taking a look at.
1. Paying attention and doing everything that is recommended in all the pop up windows that appear when you browse the web because unfortunately too many of them prove to be dangerous as they disseminate viruses and other malware.
2. Ignoring Windows updates. This is certainly not applicable if you use a Mac but to many users receiving and installing the updates is irritating due to the huge sizes of files that sometimes arrive and the need to reboot your computer. Unfortunately if you are on a Windows machine, you need to keep in mind that the operating system has too many security holes so you should be grateful whenever Microsoft offers you an update that could fix a thing or two - so ignoring them is certainly not wise.
3. Opening attachments to emails without thinking. It is quite logical that your antivirus software will hardly protect you of all the current threats as some new threats may arrive right to your inbox before they get known to antivirus teams.
4. Opening email attachments from people you know without thinking. While you may be certain that your friend will always send you only good and useful items, make sure that this person really sent you something - on IM or on the phone - if the email looks suspicious and not really personal. The explanation is simple as your friend’s computer could be compromised as well. So only opening attachments that arrive from the trusted sources and when you really expect to get something from the person who sends it sounds like a protection enough.
5. Ignoring the necessity of backups. True, many computer users prefer to think of backups as of something that is necessary for corporations that can lose millions if they lose important information. But if your personal or business files are important to you, backup is the only solution - unless you want to find yourself with a hard drive absolutely empty after a virus attack (this actually happened to me personally a few years ago and I’ll tell you it really felt bad).
6. Expecting all the peripheral devices to work with all the computers. Of course buying a printer or a scanner should be simple but making sure it will work with your computer and your operating system is wise - unless you want to spend hours returning the equipment and buying new items.
7. Ignoring updates that come from sources other than Microsoft. Our computers tend to run too many technologies and some of them want to update to new versions to fix bugs and patch holes same as Windows does - so if an update comes from a trusted source and does not look suspicious, chances are you should download and install it as the latest versions are usually the safest ones.
8. Believing in forwarded emails. Unfortunately you can hardly know if the email you get as forwarded was actually sent from the very beginning so making sure it was authentic will not hurt - especially if it looks a little suspicious to you and prompts you to open an attachment or click a link.
9. Believing the emails that look like legitimately sent by a company are actually legitimate. Unfortunately too many of us have fallen victims of phishing scams already hoping to actually win millions in sweepstakes or update our account information for PayPal or banking accounts yet people keep thinking that such emails deserve clicking links in them. Here double-checking the domain name of the sender is probably the only road to security (combined with common sense as if you don’t have an eBay account yet are prompted to update it, this email is most certainly scam).
10. Forgetting about maintenance with the help of a human professional who will make sure your computer works exactly like it is supposed to. (This is what Support.com business is so it is no wonder they insist on it - to me this sounds like totally optional if you have enough computer skills to operate your machine wisely yourself.)
These are quite usual things and I guess many of us are guilty of this or that thing from the list. Unfortunately, there are much dumber things in the world and dropping your computer from the window or pouring coffee over your keyboard are among them. I also have another thing that is probably dumber than anything the guys from Support.com have ever heard of - drying your notebook keyboard with a hairdryer. This happened to one of my friends after he glued a button to his keyboard after a small accident and wanted it to dry faster - as a result the keyboard melted and he was left without any keyboard at all until a new one arrived from the vendor. But these situations fortunately happen much less frequently than things like falling for phishing scams or opening a suspicious email attachment so applying your common sense to everything you do is the only way to keep your computer working for you for years to come.
