The full edition of the book isavailable for purchase via Amazon.
Preface
Lets take a little quiz.
Seriously, give that some thought right now.
Do you really need to be as secure as Fort Knox?
No, of course, not, and thats not what this book is about.
Im guessing that a few questions are popping into your mind right now.
Do I really need this book?
Do I need to be a computer person to understand it?
How much effort is this going to take?
Lets answer them right up front.
The answer to the first question is easy: yes!
Okay, why do you need this book?
Unlike the days of dial-up modems, our devices are now connected almost 100% of the time.
These facts have not gone unnoticed by the bad guys.
As the famous saying goes: why do criminals rob banks?
Because thats where the money is !
(Ill explain that bit of magic later in the book.)
Ive made this book not only easy to read, but hopefully even fun to read!
But cant I find all of this information on the web, you ask?
Sure you’ve got the option to!
The problem is not lack of information - the problem is that there is too much.
How do you find what you need and weed out the stuff you dont?
Most people wouldnt even know what to search for.
Its important that we understand all of these threats.
So… lets get to it!
Your friends constantly ask you for advice when buying a computer.
Your relatives email you whenever their Mac is acting funny.
This book isnt for you - its for them.
You already know most of this stuff, or at least know where to find it.
But your loved ones are still struggling, despite your best efforts.
This book is going to be the stocking stuffer you give to everyone in your family.
Its the book you issue to each friend who buys a new computer.
This is the stuff you wish you had time to explain to all your friends and family.
This just cant be helped.
Entire books could be written on any chapter of this book.
My goal here is to give everyone a valid path to computer safety, not every possible path.
That said, Im always open to suggestions for future revisions of the book.
hey feel free to reach out to me if you would like to provide feedback.
(See the Feedback section in the next chapter.)
Before we Begin
HOW WORRIED SHOULD I BE?
Id say people fall into three camps when it comes to computer security.
Theres a large camp of people who are blissfully ignorant.
They like their computers and gadgets, but dont really worry about security.
Lets call this Camp Pollyanna.
Why would anyone target me?
Surely the computer and gadget companies have built in lots of safeguards, right?
The people in this camp have probably not had anything bad happen to them and they feel safe enough.
(Theyre almost surely not.)
Theres another camp of people who are scared to death of computers and online life in general.
This would be more like Camp Luddite.
(you’re free to live without horseless carriages, too but why would you?)
Sorta like Camp Goldilocks - not too scared, not too indifferent - just cautiously confident.
The goal of this book is to bring everyone into my camp!
Computers and the Internet have already changed the world, and theres no looking back.
Automobiles can be lethally dangerous, but the benefits of mobility are undeniably worth the risks.
Before computers were connected to the Internet, this lack of understanding didnt matter much.
If you had computer problems, they were probably due to you and only affected you.
What are the actual risks involved?
How severe is the situation?
These questions will be addressed in greater detail in the upcoming chapter.
However, let’s provide a brief overview.
Security professionals refer to this process as threat analysis.
Most bad guys are motivated by good old-fashioned money.
There are lots of ways to get money from people, however, and hackers are extremely creative.
Lets look at the most common direct threats to your money and privacy.
It shouldnt even affect your credit score.
The credit card companies have insurance and they charge all sorts of fees to cover losses like these.
Spam and scams
The Internet is a con artists dream come true.
Its estimated that about 70% of emails are junk or spam.
Thats a staggering figure.
And thats just today.
The list of scams is long and is only limited by the perpetrators imagination.
Its a classic tale, just told via a new medium.
), or even the government.
Unfortunately, its extremely easy to create exact duplicates of web pages.
Theres just no real way to identify a fake by looking at it.
These web sites use bugs in computer software to surreptitiously download software to your gear.
Sometimes the emails have infected files or applications directly attached, as well.
That sounds like a science fiction story, but its very real.
Well talk more about this in the next chapter.
This is probably the most serious threat for the average computer user.
If someone can gain access to your bank accounts, they can simply withdraw all your money.
When you forget your password, how do you recover it?
The most common method today, by far, is via email.
Furthermore, they can use your email to get money from your friends and family.
If you got this email from someone you didnt know, you would surely ignore it.
And we collectively shrug when whistleblowers reveal astonishing levels of surveillance on the entire population by our governments.
But I wont get on this soapbox just yet; well save that for a later chapter.
I will say, however, that our online activities are being tracked at unbelievable levels today.
I will cover this in detail later in the book.
Its the classic risk versus reward tradeoff.
That we doesnt just refer to you and I - it also refers to large corporations.
As regular consumers, we cant do anything to improve the security of these corporate server farms.
However, we can do a lot to mitigate the impacts of these now-inevitable breaches.
Summary
How scared should you be?
How likely is it that you will be hacked or swindled or robbed?
But even those risk factors cant predict whether a particular person will be the victim of a crime.
Its very much like getting your child vaccinated.
Therefore, protecting yourself will actually help to protect your friends and family, too.
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