My laptop broke down - it wouldn't reboot any more. So I took it to a technical guy I'd used before. He said he couldn't fix it as a capacitor was blown but that he'd recover my files from the hard drive and put them onto DVD.

This is the foolish bit: I then left the laptop with him. He's now had it for 36 hours and is proving a little difficult to get hold of. I'm very worried that my data security is heavily compromised as there is plenty of personal info on the machine.

So I'm now changing every bank and e-mail password I can think of so that he can't hack into my life. I appreciate I've been pretty naive, but are there any other security measures people can think of at this late stage?

Any advice appreciated. (up)

It might not be so bad. Tech guys are notoriously busy so very hard to get hold of. Mine is on permanent answermachine.

Don't panic; I would think anyone who was going to rip you off would have done it by now. Nobody steals your bank details then waits a day before they use them - they use them immediately, before you realise there's any threat.

Plus unless you have enough money in the bank for this guy to retire to Rio, he'd be pretty stupid to do anything criminal - the police would hardly have a 'whodunnit' on their hands!

36 hours ... thats not even two working days! I would be appreciative that you don't have to pay >150 for PC World etc., just to look at it. Make it a point to contact him tomorrow (Fri.) as you will need the info for the weekend ... nothing worse than a genuine but pi$$ed off techie (you will need him in the future). Call to the office and ask for him personally. If not, just act a bit worried and someone will contact him. I don't think that he would risk losing his job for a stipend. Sure, he will prob. take a look at the hard disk but only for a laugh (perks of the job!). You know where he works from so its not as if he can do a runner.

If still worried, keep an eye on the bank details, etc., for a while. Trust me - identity thieves are a bit more complex than that (had a case here of someone getting a pretty genuine looking mail from the inland rev. stating that they were due a rebate, but had to apply for it giving all details).

Another lesson is the whole issue of back-ups, but that's for another day (should have at least 3 copies)

Cheers people

I've been in two parallel universes: one thinking that everything is normal and one full of paranoia. :p As it happens, he was contactable today and we're meeting tomorrow so he can give me the broken machine and my data.

But it did make me think for the first time how any techie could potentially nick info. And I will keep an eye on my password-protected stuff.

And although I have an external hard drive for backups, I could do with understanding how it actually works...

Thanks again (up)

======= Date Modified 02 Jul 2009 21:35:59 =======
Ogriv - perfectly normal to be someway paranoid. The PhD process makes it worse :-s
Our one and only techie is sound out and always make a "pint" of getting him a bottle of something if its a major job (the screen and hard-disk went bananas a few weeks back).

Backing up stuff is essential and I would reckon that you at least have two-three back-ups (one on an external drive, one on the laptop and if stingy, set up a dummy yahoo/gmail and send your most important docs there). If really technophobic, most Anti-Virus programs these days have a back-up facility. Just set an almost always connected external drive to the work PC and set it up. You could always ask the techie dude to do this.

Take care and hope the lpatop problem is sorted soon.

======= Date Modified 02 Jul 2009 22:44:26 =======
Ok, I'm being naive here...but what passwords would a techie get off a computer? Can they get into online bank and e-mail accounts?

All you can do is change all your passwords Ogriv. If you have credit card/bank card numbers on your computer (which you shouldn't), just phone the bank and say they are lost, then they issue you with a new card and new number. I often do this because I do all my shopping online, and hundreds of sites and libraries must have my credit card details on file.