Jul 22 2014
Each day when you go out to the internet and be the best damn net denizen you can be, you run the risk of catching viruses. It’s OK. The internet is an amazing place and the rewards far outweigh the risks, but it’s important to realise that there are people out there whose sole life’s work is creating viruses and scams to bust through your internet security and violate you. Unfortunately, no software solution is foolproof, so over the course of your internet life you’ll have to deal with a PC virus or two, how you deal with it won’t just affect your computer, it will also affect you.
While everyone starts out normal on the internet, it slowly changes you, some for the worse, some for the even worse-er. We’re not saying the internet is akin to fighting in a war, but if you’ve spent any time on an internet message board without showing any symptoms of PTSD, you’re not human (probably a chat bot). The threat of computer viruses affect each of us in different ways without us even noticing, until over time we may not recognise what we ourselves have become.
Here are the 4 worst internet traits to watch out for in yourself and others.
Online Narcissist
This is someone who has over the years and multiple infiltrations have become blasé about their internet security. When their computer gets infected and their emails hacked, they don’t worry about giving any of their friends a heads up; they let their email account send virus ridden spam to all their contacts without even a hint of remorse.
Solution: If you now realise you are one of these people, first step, don’t be an arse. If you find out your computer or e-mail account has been sending spam, let friends and family know so they don’t click on the links you send them, then change your email password.
If you find yourself on the receiving end, a simple rule is don’t click on links in emails that point to untrustworthy websites, even if they’re from friends at least until you confirm that they meant to send it. If you’ve set up secret code phrases to always place in the subject with all of your contacts this will never be a problem.
The Irrationally Paranoid
There are people out there that the governments of the world are monitoring and trying to stop. That’s like maybe 100’s of people on earth and it’s unlikely that you’re one of them. Unlike the online narcissist who doesn’t care about their internet security, these characters care too much.
They’re quite happy to spend 20 minutes making sure their 5 different antivirus programs are up to date, their software and hardware firewalls are free of open ports and their operating systems have the latest firmware installed; all before a link even from the most trusted of sources is clicked in their browser.
Besides the time wastage, these poor souls get protection at the sacrifice of performance, as with so many virus programs running in the background, their computer slows down more than any virus would cause.
Solution: They need to learn to trust, so they can slowly be weaned off their virus protection fear and introduced to just one trustworthy virus scanner with added spyware protection with automatic updates. Baby steps is the key.
Hypochondriac
We’ve all heard the old parable about the boy who cried virus, and most of us learnt a great lesson from it. But there are still some poor souls out there who, if anything happens to their computer that is even slightly out of the norm, think it’s a virus.
Sure as the friend who is called upon to fix it, you’ve learnt from their previous obstinate refusals to believe there’s nothing wrong, so you no longer bother arguing, but merely pretend that you’ve found the problem and fixed it; claiming a dodgy flux capacitor is your obvious favourite. Regrettably though, while this solution will work, by enabling their behaviour their condition can only get worse. Though hopefully not this bad.
Solution: I know it can be hard when they come to you, laptop in hand and tears in their eyes babbling about their mouse icon reacting slower than usual. However stay strong and make sure they get professional help. We’re not talking a tech, we’re talking Psychiatrist.
Defeatist A.K.A Porn Fiend
There are those who consider looking at pornography a fundamental part of life, on par with water, food and shelter. For them, they’ve come to accept that living with a computer virus is the price of their vice, and they are more than willing to pay that, along with uncomfortable chafing and exorbitant tissue bills.
Solution: There’s nothing you can say that would change their mind, but just try to convince them to consider getting the highest level of virus scanning available, with features such as virus, cloud and data/identity protection, which also spans across all your devices giving you as complete a protection as can be achieved.
