I’VE BEEN HACKED!

By Shirley M. Carolan, ATMG

 “I’ve been hacked!” - If you’ve ever received those words from a friend, co-worker, family member, etc. then you know you must check your computer immediately to see if a virus has spread to your computer.  Then, you have to do whatever it takes to get rid of the insidious virus from your computer because you can infect others!

I am not a techie but I thought I was fairly savvy in knowing what emails to open, or, what attachments to open and what not to open.  Wrong!  In the last three weeks, three of my friends have had the computers hacked and I was the recipient of 3 bogus emails.  Don’t you know I opened the attachments and links immediately without much thought.  Then, it dawned on me why would my friends send me such ridiculous emails and links to open?  It didn’t make sense that they would send me such rubbish.

Next I got their dreaded emails that their computers had been hacked and likely all the email contacts would be under siege.  Too late for me.  I lost all my email contacts and many, many important files and folders!  Some I may never be able to replace.

Fortunately, I bought an HP laptop this time last year for my birthday which I haven’t used.  It has many bells and whistles, has more memory and is much faster than my other laptop.  It still has another year warranty on it!  Gradually, I’m replacing lost files, contacts, etc.  But, it’s a time consuming job!  Hence, I’ve not posted any articles to my blogs and website.  This saddens me because I truly enjoy writing and receiving your wonderful support and comments.

Meanwhile, I’ve taken my old pc to a local electronics mechanic and hope he can salvage something from the past.  This experience has also taught me to be more vigilant in backing up my computer and files.

It’s good to be back!

 Shirley M. Carolan, ATMG

Speaker  •  Writer •  Artist

Phone/Fax:  760-732-0663

artistwithaflair@att.net

www.shirleycarolan.com

www.smcarolan.blogspot.com