“Politics broke my computer!” a customer exclaimed as he was signing it in for service Friday. I laughed at the thought of President Trump reaching through his LCD panel and smashing the keyboard with a hammer.
As my customer was describing his issues it occurred to me that it’s possible looking at too many political websites may have actually damaged his computer. Many fake news sites are laden with links to viruses and malware. I supposed it was also possible my customer became frustrated and actually slammed his own keyboard.
An hour into the repair I figured out that looking at too many politics may have actually been the issue with this poor guy’s machine. Years ago social networking, poker and some other sites were usually to blame for viruses , but today’s issues may actually be from fake news websites.
So how do you prevent these infections? The best way is to not visit fake news sites in the first place. Linking to news sites through Google or Yahoo! doesn’t always guarantee you won’t stumble on a fake site but major search engines do a fantastic job of filtering out most.
Fake news sites are rampant now, some have reported higher page hits than legitimate websites like NBC or CNN. Based on numbers I read last week, fake news sites are significantly more profitable than actual news because they don’t pay investigational reporters to do real work.
Do not click on advertisements. It’s a good idea not to click ads on any site, but definitely don’t click ads on fake news sites. Many times they’ll lead you off the website and can redirect you to virus infected websites that could also infect your computer. Unfortunately it’s almost impossible to discern between safe and infected links.
Major revenue for these sites comes from advertising. Companies buy space on fake news sites and can place pretty much any ad they want in that space. Unfortunately most fake news sites don’t care that these ads can redirect to malware and virus infested websites because it’s making them money.
Finally, use your head and try and determine if the advertisement seems legitimate. Typically if something is too good to be true, it’s probably bad. Nothing is free anymore and everything comes at a price. Infecting your computer to steal your information is that price.
Companies that create today’s viruses are making boatloads of money by collecting and selling your data. You’ve heard the term big data, well this is part of where it comes from. Nobody would waste their time creating viruses if it didn’t have some financial gain.
I feel like Smokey the Bear when I tell people “only you can prevent viruses,” but it’s true. Use your head and avoid fake news sites. Don’t click on ads. Definitely don’t pound your keyboard until the keys fall off. Of course the very best way to prevent becoming infected from news is to simply read the newspaper where there are no links. Last time I checked paper doesn’t contain computer viruses.
(Jeromy Patriquin is the President of Laptop & Computer Repair, Inc. You can read past articles at www.LocalComputerWiz.com.)