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It won't be done at gun point or anything that bad, but have already told them I am not leaving the laptop with them as I need it for work mainly. Without this I would be useless working from home.
Tomorrow I am taking my laptop in to be cleaned at our local phone repair shop as I think it is time to give it a once over making sure it is running ok. I literally hate the idea, but it needs to be done as I can't exactly afford to replace it right now if something was to go wrong.
I will be standing over him the entire time though as mainly I am concerned about the dust build up slowing down the fans. Lately it sounds as though the fans are struggling a bit and I know how quickly dust can build up. There is no reason to turn it on and even though it is password protected I just don't trust anyone.
I keep all my passwords off line. but still the thought of someone accessing your computer doesn't sit very well with me. I know the value of the tokens I am holding and in reality they are worth much more as the markets are all down currently and have been for over 3 years. I am sure this is always on everyone's minds as the values increase as this is serious business for some people. We are talking about serious amounts of money and not just a few hundred dollars for most people. If you have been in crypto for the last 4 or 5 years the values of what you are holding add up very quickly.
It was over 3 years ago that somehow someone got into my computer and managed to clean out my Binance account whilst I was online. I have never really gotten over that experience and dealing with Binance was not exactly helpful either. I had got though to the help line and after half a dozen rings it hung up saying goodbye. I tried again and had the same result which was not what you would call customer service. I did receive an email the following day saying that it appeared the account had been cleared of funds. What I found strange is then you had to respond to an email confirming your transaction and I received none. I will never use Binance ever again as the customer service was non existent.
I bought a Trezor so I could store whatever I had off line in a cold wallet and how ironic my gardener stole that. Nothing had been set up except the password so it was useless to everyone else and was empty. He had no idea what he had pinched and saw it on the coffee table still in it's box. I will get another one and will keep it in the safe once it is in use. Amazing you try and help someone and they rob you blind.
I have some thoughts of where and how it happened but cannot prove it. Back then work used to upgrade our computers allowing their IT team access to our computers working behind the scenes updating and changing things. Someone must have noticed as my Binance account was always open back then as it was my hobby and the way I was learning how to trade. I felt violated at the time and wish I knew who did it as I would have taken great pleasure in tracking them down. I didn't think of this at the time as this must have happened months later with someone just taking a chance. Once you allowed them access it must have been easy for them to get back in later.
Ever since that day I have always promised myself at some point I will have a dedicated computer just for trading and anything crypto related including Hive and Leo and whatever else I have. There will be no updates via another person coming through the back door as that will not be necessary. Just keeping it simple with a good protection package like Kaspersky which I have now.
Tomorrow I expect the technical guy to unscrew the back and use a blower to remove the dust and make sure the fans are ok and not showing signs of wear and tear. If all goes according to plan I should be out of there in under an hour and good for another few years.
The family said just drop it off and collect it in the morning which is never going to happen as who knows what gets installed and fiddled with. I am not the sharpest person when it comes to what you can and can't do, but I literally trust no one except for some family members and a few on Hive who I have never met. There are some real genuine trustworthy people around who have helped me in the past and hopefully one day I can return the favor.