Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Hardly surprising news really, but what can the general public do as an alternative?

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/262978/e...passwords.html

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

well to start with they could learn the basics of computer maintenance
alot of people are just unwilling to learn anything about them
Three years ago i didn't even own a computer now i have no problems installing ram ,re-installing the os, adding hardware ,i even built a basic pc for my sister in-law .The only time i would ever use one of these shops is to buy something never for repairs

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

it's like any service industry though isn't it?

it's a shame, but I can't say I'm surprised. I mean I know almost nothing about cars, so when I take it for an MOT and they tell me something is wrong, I just believe them, but that's not quite as bad as going through all your belongings. But I guess they probably have a rummage through the glove compartment and boot.

i'm not interested in cars, I'll ask my dad first if there's a problem, or my neighbour, then take it to a garage, and hope they're honest.

Some ppl aren't interested in computers themselves, just want to use them, but I guess their ignorance could cause emotional as well as financial harm.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Who leaves all their banking info and passwords in a text file on a mobile computer anyway, let alone marked private.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

There are tools that can recover passwords, used them myself when I was workshop manager but only at the request of the cutomer to recover lost passwords..

There are a lot of cowboys out there :( Seen a few myself, even had a few work for me until I found out :(

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

same type of people who write their pin on the back of the card :dozey:

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I keep all my passwords and banking details on my computer but only behind truecrypt. I'd forget them otherwise :erm:

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

And your truecrypt password is on a post it on the monitor, so you don't forget it... :erm:

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Is that not a good place to leave it then?? :spin:

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I have a double-sided sheet of A4 with full login details (www links, username & password) sitting on my desk.

As I cannot remember all 40+ of them.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I use a password manager that stores them encypted just one master password to remember. I have never typed my passwords in as the manager creates them and remembers them for each site.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I guess it's the same as motor garages in some ways. I'll always ask friends and colleagues for names they trust rather than take pot luck or believe what they say in Yellow Pages.

All my business comes from recommendations. The only advertising you can trust and it keeps me as busy as I can handle.

I'd never consider any of these rip-off tricks although I must admit that in rescueing/recovering client folders on a few occasions I've seen some private pictures and movies. Sometimes you just have to check. If you find something named "New folder" how else do you know if it needs saving?

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I just remember my passwords/login names.
All different, all easy enough.

Ah, the benefits of being young...

Oh, and in my job as Tech Support, we are trusted with users private data 24/7. We do not abuse this. We will lose our jobs.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Probably people like me who are not computer savvy!;)

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

You'd be amazed how many people do this. You are not alone...

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

There is a flip side to this - IIRC Paul Gadd (AKA Gary Glitter) was thankfully first caught because he put his PC in for repair @ PC World.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Yeah but I don't think anyone really thinks it's a good idea for IT staff to shuffle though people's photos/bank details in case they are a peado..

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Sometimes unavoidable though, windows provides thumbnails in most folders.

Purposefully though, i agree.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

thumbnails is easy to disable

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

True, but i just don't bother. I don't care what i see on the machines in the course of duty, as long as it's not A) Illegal or B) Against our company policy (Skype for example).

I wonder how many PC Repair Shops are like the 4th one in the article here though?

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

It's all the same old junk anyway. The rare machines that really catch my eye are the pristine ones with no dodgy history or cookies at all.

:D

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I get suspicious when i get well-maintained O/S installs here...

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Sometimes you are going to see things whether you are looking for it or not.
Often if I am doing some repair work and the user wants a complete backup of all their data you do see a few things whther you like it or not.
Eg. backing up favourites, checking their profile to make sure you have all the folders, that you havent forgotten anything, etc.

If I am doing work I always tell the customer exactly everything I have done and will tell them about the costs before I have to do any work.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Used to make me laugh when a customer brought a PC into the shop with just the windows install disk and asked for a re-install due to a virus or other problem. After the re-install we'd always get asked where thier other programs were that they installed..

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I totally agree. Sometimes you *have* to search. For instance, personal pictures saved by an app that uses a non-standard store folder. If the stuff is not in 'My Pictures' there is no alternative but to look for other locations.

However, I see a big difference between that and calling your mates over to have a quick snigger.

When I'm working on a machine I keep a note sheet. What I've done, what failed, what tools have been run etc etc. It's partly to aid my own memory as I often put a job aside for a while if I'm waiting for parts or something but also it provides a detailed worksheet to hand to the customer so they can see just why the job has cost as much as it did.

I always price in advance wherever possible. Of course that means sometimes I win, sometimes I lose a bit but it's more important to me that the customer is happy. That way I get them back and will make it up in the long haul.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

We once gave our laps tops to a "friend" who works at repairs.
My husband forgot to give him our passwords, we then were not contactable for a week, due to being abroad with no mobiles.
He hacked in and did what my husnband wanted done to them.
We at the time did not mind, then months later in a convo, he said something which I picked up on. He would of only know it if he had gone through our stuff!!

Ex friend now.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I can tell you, I got ripped off twice by computor crooks, I needed to put more power on my system, and PC world charged me £150.00 for putting a little box, the size smaller than a can clip, and l watched him do it, THREE MINUTES, and he took out the old one and put in the new one.

Then a foriegn shop ripped me off, when a wire came off, and all he did was push it back on. he charged me £40.00

My son in law, then told me, he had one and could have done it for nothing, and he got it off a company off Google, and it cost £20.00.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Theres a computer shop here which i wont name thats been in trouble more than once.

He was caught going through holiday snaps on someones system and showing the topless ones of the guys wife to friends of his.... This shop also his prices are a rip off take this for example. Last Year i rang him for a price on a 500GB SATA hard disk it was around April 2008, elsewhere i was quoted between £70 - £79 this guy told me he wanted £147 because he had to pay special carriage and having run a shop myself in the computer trade i knew he was talking rubbish and i said to him Jesus, what u doing bringing it down via Royal Appointment, im gonna have one of the Queens aids deliver it in a Golden Carriage?

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

getting into a passworded system is easy ive had to do it in similar circumstances.

When I have a machine that needs a clean up ie has a malware problem and data needs to be recovered I ask the client to copy everything into one folder on the desktop and I rar it up then burn it to disc then scan it in a virtual machine before it goes back I do not open the folder. If there is a nasty the AV 99% of the time can delete it. It is a shame that there are so many charlatans in the trade it makes it harder for guys like me who just wants to keep clients happy so they come back and tell their friends

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

How many customers have no clue what is the password for the master Administrator account? Almost all, I can tell you.

A reset disk for system passwords is an absolute essential.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I don't know my master admin account password...

Though i guess i don't need it, i'll just decrypt/hack w/e my way in.

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

Necessary often to use adminstrator in safe mode. Without the password that's not too easy...

However, there are always ways and means.

;)

Re: Exposed : PC Repair Shops
 

I can only trust myself with my PC, not that there is anything confidential or nasty on my PC, but friends have been ripped off by going to places such as PC World and getting ripped off for "faulty equipment" which were never faulty in the first place. I built my PC and will fix my PC whether it means teaching myself how to in the process :P I find it fun and interesting anyway...if I could, I'd do the same with my car - but I have a mechanic friend who will look at it for me, and there's obviously greater risks with thinking I've fixed things in my car, only for it to blow up ;P