Hacker Alerts naming people who can harm your computer-Fiction!

Hacker Alerts naming people who can harm your computer-Fiction!

Summary of eRumor:

A forwarded email that warns you to avoid contact with a particular person who, the message says, is a hacker who can “figure out your id computer address. The message subject is usually “Hacker Alert” and the name of the hacker is sometime listed as Simon Ashton and at other times is listed as Christopher Butterfield.

The Truth:

This email is not true. It’s not clear whether it’s an intentional hoax or was sent by someone who became alarmed by a received email and decided to send out a warning about it.  The bottom line is that merely receiving an email from someone doesn’t guarantee that the person is a hacker and unless there was something in the email that you were asked to do such as open an attachment or go to a web site, there isn’t much danger that anything bad will happen.

As a general safety precaution when chatting or emailing with strangers it is only common sense to apply some of the following rules:

Never divulge personal information.

Don’t give anyone your passwords or log in information to any accounts.

Unless you have initiated a technical support call to a trusted person or site, never allow anyone access to your computer with programs such as Remote Desktop Connection.

When chatting online with strangers, never give out your home address, phone number or personal information.   You can generalize without giving personal information away.  If the other chatter seems to insist on your personal information change the topic or disengaged the chat.

If you allow your children to use the internet, always monitor them and set up healthy guidelines.

Some of the newer operating systems by Microsoft update your computer automatically.   If you have this feature disabled make sure you are current with important updates.

As always, when operating a computer on the internet make sure that your virus protection software is activated and up to date. 

updated 04/30/09