My Computer Landed me in Jail

Now how could that happen you may ask? Well, let me spin a little fictitious tale for you to illustrate just how this can happen.

People often say “I don’t have anything to steal” as an excuse for not securing their WiFi or password protecting their systems. Unfortunately that answer displays a serious lack of understanding of what the standard threat can mean to you.

The numbers of scenarios with negative outcomes are unlimited. Hackers can be professional criminals, unscrupulous Ex’s, or bored individuals anywhere in the world with an Internet connected computer or another tenant in your neighborhood or building. They can do inconvenient things like slow down your Internet Connection, or more serious actions like deleting your photos, stealing your credit card numbers or your online banking password.

Let’s look at a worst case nightmare tale. There is a bored and twisted but tech savvy new boyfriend of a neighbor down the street named Barney. He brings his laptop with him on his overnight stays and begins browsing for unsecured or poorly secured wireless access points in the area.

“Well look at this!” he says, “Susie’s network is wide open, time for some fun!”

Unfortunately for you, in addition to being an amateur hacker, Barney is also addicted to child pornography. Barney connects to your WiFi and finds that your PC has a blank administrator password. He creates a hidden directory on it where he uploads gigabytes of illegal pornography for his viewing pleasure, and makes it available off of your computer to internet users by installing file sharing software.

What Barney does not realize is that since now your hard drive is very full, you begin to experience poor computing performance as well as your internet connection is being tied up by porn surfers from around the world accessing the illegal materials now on your computer. You call an IT consultant out to investigate. Barney’s bad luck is yours as well; your consultant who happens to be an upstanding guy with kids of his own finds the hidden directory and calls the police.

You find yourself under arrest for possession and distribution of Child Pornography, and your office and home computers are seized for analysis. Your once very supportive and loving spouse changes the locks and gets a restraining order against you to protect the children. Your boss says he believes in your innocence, but seems much more distant than ever before. Let’s not even think about how the fallout of your arrest will affect your co-worker and client relationships.

After the police conduct their investigation, they may figure out that you were hacked, you may be prosecuted, and you may be convicted. In either case, the chances of getting your old life back are pretty slim!

This is a worst case scenario, however the steps needed to prevent this and many other threats are fairly minor and inexpensive compared to even one minor potential consequence.

You should take some basic precautions to safeguard the CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability) of your computer system in order to CYA (no definition required). You should at a minimum have a Firewall/Router, Secure Wireless using WPA2, Current Anti-Virus Software, a Daily Backup and regular spyware scanning. Also, don’t just keep you priceless photos on your computer’s hard drive, back them up and better yet copy them to one of the many free photo/file sharing sites.

There is no sure thing for protecting yourself, however doing nothing just makes you an easy target. It’s like having an alarm system, you can still get robbed but if you’re the only one on the block without one, you’re the likely next victim!

Leo Bletnitsky, is President of LBA Networking, Inc. dba Las Vegas Med IT. LV Med IT specializes is computer network and security consulting for Businesses and Medical Practices. For more information visit www.MoveToEMR.com or www.LVMedIT.com

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