More on Thinking Before Sending Your Computer Out

Here's another wonderful story that people don't seem to learn from. A teacher was found with child porn on his laptop. He apparently was watching the videos "after hours" at the school.

Let's be perfectly clear: I'm not condoning child porn. Actually this post isn't about porn at all. What it's about is the general idea that someone has data that they probably should have kept private...would you advertise it if you were taking part in a crime? Duh...and instead of taking steps to secure that information, he sent the computer to be repaired without giving any thought to that data.

After working in a repair shop I saw the kinds of things that people had on their computer without thinking about who would see it. Everything from passwords to financial data to (legal) porn. Believe me. Do you really want someone you don't really know suddenly finding out what kinks you're into?

Take a couple minutes to think about these things:
Does your computer have your passwords saved to your bank?
What does your browsing history say about you?
Are you the only one with access to your "family" computer? Do you know what Junior is doing on the computer?
Have you ever audited chat logs?
Email...you aren't one of those people that exchanges racy or risqué emails with friends or immediate family, are you? Because in most cases those emails aren't kept encrypted...
Is your email set to automatically allow logins? Are you getting bills or information sent to those email accounts that you don't want shared?
Anyone send pictures to you or have you stored images on the computer that may be...compromising? Think about this from different perspectives. More and more often teens are finding out the consequences of allowing their party pics to be viewable on the Internet, and job seekers discover that picture of them their friend took barfing into a toilet at an underage party doesn't win brownie points with prospective employers.
Are you sure there's nothing you mind being passed around?
Are you sure all your music and videos on your computer is legal? The RIAA would love to make an example of you if it isn't.

Scarier yet...are you sure that you don't have spyware or malware on your computer that is downloading and sharing illegal material (such as child porn) on your computer without your knowledge??

There are steps that can be taken to minimize risk, such as encrypting your home directory or hard drive. Many people will say that they have nothing to hide or don't care if someone sees their embarrassing photos. That still doesn't explain what's going to happen if malware was transferring illegal material using your computer and that tech at the computer shop discovers it...do you really want to take a chance?