Many businesses sell or give away their old computers without realising that the hard drives probably contain confidential information about their business.

Most people don’t know that deleting the data, or even formatting the hard disk does NOT remove this data from the disk. It is easy to recover.

I suggest that you either sell the computer without the hard disk, or use a special program to totally “shred” the files contained on the hard disk so that the contents cannot be restored. Pay a visit to www.download.com or your favorite software source, and search for programs using the search term “file deletion”

Choose a program that will overwrite the files several times and make them unrecoverable. then use it on the data contained on the computer you are about to sell.

You can either selectively choose the parts of the disk you want to delete, or delete the whole disk.

Deleting the whole disk is probably the best option if you have the system disks so that you can reinstall the operating system.

It’s probably NOT YOU!

To discover who is in charge of your online business, here’s the worlds shortest quiz.

It only has one question, and you might not like the answer.
The question is:

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I f you have, or if you receive one – DELETE IT IMMEDIATELY

It almost certainly contains a link to a harmful program that will install itself onto your computer, and start doing unmentionable things to your system .

You know, I remember the innocent old days when people sent other people e-cards with pretty pictures and songs. it was a surprise to get one.

However, that was a long time ago.

Stick to the rule of NEVER opening an attachment unless you are expecting it, and
never click on links in untrusted emails..

(And have an up to date virus filter as well as an effective firewall on your computer)

There are many ways of collecting payments for the goods and services that you sell online. Many are simple to set up, and just involve pasting a bit of code onto your existing web pages.

I’ll start off by discussing the easiest method – the  non-bank service providers. (more…)

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It’s a bit difficult to tell whether your computer is protected from outside attack, or whether anyone can get through your defences and select from the smorgasbord of data on your hard drive.

After all, your router just sits and flashes lights at you. You don’t REALLY know whether it’s effective. (more…)

If you’re thinking of getting a broadband internet connection, please don’t fall for the cheap options that are currently being promoted in the lifestyle magazines.

They are pretty useless if you actually want to USE the internet, and could end up costing you hundreds (or thousands!)of dollars in excess charges every month unless you are VERY careful. (more…)

20 minutes.

That’s how long it takes for harmful programs to start finding your unprotected Windows computer on the internet. And install themselves. (more…)

If you are a Google Adwords advertiser, an email like this would certainly get your attention:

Dear Google AdWords Customer,

We were unable to process your payment. Your ads will be suspended soon unless we can process your payment. To prevent your ads from being suspended, please update your payment information. (more…)