5 answers to common tech questions revealed

[Imran]

A woman called her company’s tech support desk, and the technician asked for her password. She replied, “Snow White Cinderella Snoopy Dopey Pinocchio Harry Potter Ariel 5.” The technician said, “That’s a great long password.” The woman replied, “Thank you! I was told my password needs to have seven characters and one number.”

1. I got an email that says the sender has a video of me taken with my webcam while I was watching porn. He is threatening to release the video if I don’t pay him. He showed me a password that was real!

You’re the victim of a sextortion scam. I bet that password is one you’ve used before and if so, change it now. It’s details like these that frighten people into paying.

2. All these passwords are driving me nuts. I forgot my password to “fill-in-the-blank” website. Is there a way I can find my password before resetting it?

Many people don’t know that you can easily retrieve your passwords by looking in your browser’s settings. This feature is excellent for your memory but bad for your security. It’s one reason why you should have a login password to your computer or device.

3. I use my phone to bank, work, and more. How can I tell if my phone or tablet has a virus or keylogger? How do I remove it?

Viruses used to be confined to desktops and laptops. But now, mobile gadgets are being targeted with viruses, trojans, malware, spyware, ransomware, and adware. Just about any type of “ware” cybercrooks can use to exploit victims.


4. My laptop gets hot while I use it. Does this mean that the laptop is malfunctioning?

Pretty much every laptop owner has been through a too-toasty experience with a machine at some point. When laptops are working hard and using a lot of processing power, they naturally heat up. This is a normal part of a laptop’s operation, but there are ways to help your machine chill out.

5. I value my privacy. Browsers have incognito mode or private modes. Do these modes really hide what I do online?
Most browsers feature a private browsing mode that won’t save your history or other data. In Chrome, this feature is known as Incognito Mode. There are a few things that it does and [i]does not[/i] conceal.

Incognito/Private Browsing stops your computer or device from saving the following items:

• Your web browsing history
  
  
• Cookies
  
  
• Website data
  

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