APEX DS

Third, it’s time to find help from someone who knows much about computer. Ask him/her to check how serious the software damage is in your computer. If the conclusion is to reinstall your operating system or reformatting your computer, don’t forget to back up all your data before reinstalling or reformatting it. Do not back up any program though since the programs may have been compromised.

Fourth, after you have your computer cleaned, take some steps as precaution. Invest your money in buying good and up to date anti-virus and anti-malware. Install a software or hardware based firewall and use the default setting to get the maximum protection. Get as many advices as possible to make sure that you will choose the right product.

Emails are one of the tools hackers use to get into your computer. Discard all emails sent from persons you don’t know that bring attachments with them. Many hackers also send emails with attachments as if they are sent from your friends. If the attachment comes from one of your friends, call them to check whether it was really them who sent the attachment.

Most of us will feel intimidated with the word “hackers”. They seem as the undefeated persons in the digital world. People are afraid of them and hope that none of those hackers find interests in their computers. However, it’s not like there’s nothing you can do once you find them invading your computer. There are some common proactive precautions you can do to save yourself from a great loss.

First, if you feel in any way that someone has hacked your computer and stolen your personal data, contact  all institutions in which you have yourself registered immediately to prevent anyone from misusing them. Contact your bank to freeze your account and change your password. Do this to your other accounts to prevent you from great loss. When you contact those institutions, do not use your computer. Use phone or visit their offices directly.

Second, disconnect your computer from the internet connection. The hackers cannot misuse your personal information when your computer is not connected to the internet. Scan your computer with anti-virus or anti-malware software installed in your computer since hackers usually have a keylogger installed.

You can download disk wiping products for free from the internet. There are many similar products, but the most respectable ones are Darik’s Boot and Nuke. First, download the software to your computer and save it in the drive your computer accesses when it boots up. The software then will automatically erase all the contents of all the drives detected the next when your computer boots up. Make sure that you have read the instruction carefully and back up all data you need when you use it in your computer.

The last desperate thing to do in making your data irretrievable is by destroying it. When you are in hurry and have no time to use any software to clean up your drives but you still don’t want anyone to be able to look into your data, then you can just simply destroy your hard drive into pieces. Wear goggles and gloves, grab a big hammer and smash the hammer with maximum power to your hard drive. You can also drill your hard drive if you have the tool. Just make sure that you have done maximum damage to your hard drive. In theory, experts can still retrieve your data, but it will take large amount of money and extremely sophisticated software and hardware.

One of the ways how people steal your your identity is by looking into your old computer’s hard drive. You may think that you already erased all your data when you sold or donated your computer to someone else or dumped it in the dump yard, but you actually didn’t. Just because you have erased your data, it doesn’t mean that it is no longer there. Most people do not know how to wipe off their data thoroughly from their hard drive. Two MIT graduate students bought 158 hard drives several years ago to purposely see how many people had erased their data properly. They found proofs of someone’s affair in one of the hard drives.

You may feel paranoid right now after reading the story above, yet you don’t need to. Experts say that there are still many good people out there who won’t use your erased data for illegal purposes when they buy your used hard drive. However, your hard drive may fall into the wrong hands. Therefore, here are some methods you can use to wipe data thoroughly from your hard drive.