I received a new computer yesterday. It is much bigger and more powerful than my old computer.
My son (an adult) tells me to keep it in top condition, I can’t click on anything!
My world just got way smaller.
Any ideas or “safe” sites appreciated.
New Computer
07 Friday Feb 2014
Posted in Uncategorized
Tree 
Did he install anti-virus / popup blockers? “Not clicking on anything” is really a severe rule.
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He installed McAfee but he has me nervous because there are apparently viruses the anti-virus programs are not catching. I read that the virus that hit Target would not show up on any anti-virus program. WordPress won’t even let me preview my own post because all pop-ups are blocked.
I agree that the no click rule is severe. I think I’m going to have to take it with a grain of salt. He doesn’t even know for sure that a virus caused the problems on my old computer. The fan had not been working for months.
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You’re not in danger from the specific problem that caused the Target hack (although what you read is correct).
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As long as your anti-virus software is current, you should be fine. I switched to Mac in 2007 though so it’s not something I have to worry as much as if I still had my pc.
When I started online, I stuck to sites such as Yahoo for overall internet news and my mailbox, Nytimes and latimes for current news and Google for my search engine – and was just careful not to click on just anything.
Good luck with your new computer! The whole world is at your fingertips!
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Thanks for the reply. I follow some news sites on twitter. I wondered if in general it is safe to click on a link in a twitter or tumblr post? I still intend to follow the same blogs and click on links in them.
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Unless it’s from someone I don’t know on Twitter or Tumblr or even my email, I don’t click it. I like retweeting news and interesting stuff on twitter and rely on tweeted links from others in discovering new things though.
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Twitter is *not* safe unless you know the link is coming.
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It’s probably safe to unblock the popups just from WordPress.
When you are surffing, always make sure you have a secure session (https at beginning of URL). Don’t store your credit card numbers on line.
A general rule that I follow: don’t click on anything that’s begging me aggressively to click on it. Don’t click on anything from anyone whom I don’t know well.
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This is a nice general list:
http://www.it.northwestern.edu/security/browsing.html
I would say that apart from downloading software updates, you shouldn’t need to download additional software, players, or plugins unless you’re doing something fairly advanced. Your computer should always ask you before you download. If in doubt, say no.
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Thank you so much for your helpful replies!
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I know there’s much danger out there with viruses and such and it gets stressful with a new computer that you want to protect, but at the end of the day even the most secure equipment can be hacked/infected, so apart from common sense protection, I say just sit back and enjoy the internet experience, clean out your cookies and history often, never agree to “remember password” and, as Serv said, don’t click on anything that aggressively encourages you to so or on things on twitter/tumblr that you don’t recognise. If it doesn’t feel right, ignore.
PS. Re Twitter, don’t ever clink the link “someone was talking about you” or such crap, even if it comes from someone you know as they have been hacked.
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Thanks! This is my 5th or 6th computer but there are so many viruses now. I do clean my cookies and history (about once a week.) I am amazed at how much faster my new computer is. I’m loving it! I have a laptop that is getting pretty slow. I just installed some new anti-virus on it but it didn’t find anything.
Just so I’m clear (I’m new to this) twitter and tumblr links are not necessarily safe. I was under the impression they were. If I know you or your blog I should be OK to click on any links, right?
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Anything we link to on the blog itself is safe as far as we know. On my blog, anyway, I have a pretty typical style, so you’ll know, I think if I had been hacked. But let’s say I tweeted something about Richard Armitage — that’s probably real. If I tweeted something like “look what someone is saying about you” that is probably a hack. You kind of have to ask yourself if the link makes sense for the person who is sending it. Does that answer your question?
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It wouldn’t let me reply to you so I’m replying here. Thank you, you did answer my question. I realize it takes some common sense to be safe even on blogs of people you know/follow.
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Not necessarily. Every so often you will get a message on twitter from a friend asking you to link, but they’ve been hacked. When you see it you’ll know it doesn’t feel right. Last week it turned out that tumblr had a virus problem too. Strange people would all of a sudden start following you. Apparently clicking on their blog could do damage.
Rule of thumb is, if it feels weird, you don’t click. Why would anyone sane DM you a link saying someone wrote something nasty about you? The chances are if that it ever happened they’d email you, but even that feels farfetched.
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