Hopefully, you do keep your anti-virus software up-to-date and scan your system daily. Even so, we all know that new threats are coming at our precious pcs via the internet all the time. And if your computer has ever been taken over by a particularly malicious virus… well, you don’t need me to tell you just what a nightmare that can be!
So, all in all, the presence of viruses or even the potential for getting a virus on your pc breeds a certain paranoia. So any rumour of a new virus tends to induce a state of blind panic - firstly to protect our own hardware and data, and secondly to let our friends and contacts know so that they won’t be infected.
I was reminded of this recently when a well-meaning subscriber and friend introduced me to the dangers of being e-mailed by a certain Simon Ashton. Now, I’d not had the dubious honour of coming across this particular “gentleman” before, so, sure enough, I dropped what I was doing at the time and gave my full attention to this new “threat” to my valuable data.
Thankfully, I was soon able to put some perspective on this threat by consulting the trusty website, www.hoax-slayer.com. This has become my first port of call whenever I hear of a new virus: this tells me whether it is, in fact, just a hoax. And “Simon Ashton” IS just a hoax.
Now I still don’t understand the mentality of those who create real viruses or even hoaxes - I assume it’s just a “power” thing (punch “Simon Ashton” into Google, and it will come up with 2,190,000 matches) - but I don’t waste much time on them these days. I find I can easily control them by regular use of my anti-virus program and hoax-slayer.
CLICK ON HERE TO TEST HOAX-SLAYER (try typing “Simon Ashton” into the search box).
CLICK ON HERE to download the anti-virus software I use.
P.S. Both of these are free resources.
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