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!
Speaker  •  Writer •  Artist
Phone/Fax:  760-732-0663

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