Hijacked to Nowhere

Plugging in...

Hi-jacking is never good, in the air or on the ground. But when it happens to your computer, look out! The Tutor's client had been having computer issues for, ahem, a year, before seeking help.

The situation: anti-virus had expired, computer was slow as frozen molasses. It finally became unusuable which is when the Tutor was called. After an initial cleanup that hadn't been done EVER (over five years of ownership), the computer leapt to life and had acceptable, reasonable response time. The internet: check, email: check, favorite websites accessible: check Almost bliss.

Eternally optimistic, the Tutor removed the expired anti-virus program and attempted to install another security program. (One computer cannot have two anti-virus programs installed simultaneously - they conflict.) ENTER stage left: the hi-jacker. When attempting to go to ANY website that remotely smacked of safety, security, on-line scanning or windows updates, the browser (didn't matter which one, Tutor tried several) was re-directed [hi-jacked] to myriad websites that had absolutely nothing to do with the requested web addresses. Although the Tutor knew what was happening, most users would have checked their spelling, tried again, and scratched their heads wondering why did a tennis site appear when they had clearly typed [fill in any security website name here]? FYI: crying "why me" doesn't help at all.

Given the age of the computer, and its hardware (memory, processor speed), the amount of effort to "pay the ransom" if you will, far exceeded the value of the computer. In order to fix the computer, since the quickest solutions had all been disabled by the hijacker, the computer would need to be restored to factory condition. Meaning, everything on it would be erased and it would have returned to new status. Another alternative: install a new hard drive.

Sounds OK, doesn't it? Either of those: about 30 minutes. It's the rest that is time consuming. All software except Windows would need re-installing, all data backed up before the restoration so it wouldn't be lost, all devices such as printers, cameras, iPods, routers, etc would need re-installing.

Getting the picture? Time, more time, more money spent on older technology. And then five years of Windows updates would have to be done (this part could be eliminated IF the new hard drive option was chosen).

Bringing a computer back to factory condition also means it doesn't have all the security updates that occurred from the day it was put into use.

Sometimes, even when the security software is current, a hi-hacking can occur. That my friends is WHY BACKUPS are so important. Not just data backups, but IMAGE backups. With an IMAGE and a regular data backup, a computer can be restored in less than two hours.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: before calling for help - is it plugged in, is it regularly maintained and secure, and is it turned on?

Unplugged