What are paranoid users so afraid of ?

[509322]

Make your selections

 

[Fritz]

Most of these points are a real possibility, what's "paranoid" about being aware of it?

 

[marzametal]

I voted for option 7... the others don't get my undies in a knot.

 

[Adz.]

I'm paranoid of all options

 

[roger_m]

I didn't vote, as I'm not paranoid at all.

 

[CMLew]

Nothing is more paranoid than losing $$ from your bank account IMHO.

So in order to minimise my paranoid, all purchase/banking stuffs are done in separate laptop, locked down.

 

[Paul123]

I think its interesting that (at the moment I wrote this), surveillance rather than worries about their money being stolen is a higher concern to people. I think privacy is a great concern and a human right. Its not that I am doing anything wrong, but the inference by the UK government's Snoopers Act that we are all suspect and need to be watched by Big Brother, just offends me, and I'll do my best to frustrate them. Mass Surveillance has no place in a free and democratic society, and its dubious it has any real effectiveness in stopping crime and terrorism. Its a sign of paranoia in a government - one that doesn't trust its own people

 

[Svoll]

I picked : All my money can be stolen right from within my bank's online banking portal & Financial malware will breach my system without even being installed on the system.

Can't have all my hard earned money working at Jack in the Box as a hungry college student vanished....

 

[shmu26]

I am intrigued by the last two options, i.e., the financial paranoias.
how do those exploits work? Without malware getting on your system, what's the hack?
I assume the first financial paranoia is all about stealing login credentials.
But what about the second one?

I don't really care about surveillance/privacy, that's something that people living in affluent Western democracies tend to worry about.

 

[SHvFl]

Only "Software downloads from reputable sites are very likely to be replaced with malicious downloads".
I think i have the others covered or it's improbable to happen.

EDIT: I assume you mean what we are still paranoid about and not in general. I went with the first because a paranoid user will probably be afraid of all when you mention them

 

[LASER_oneXM]

...."losing all my private files": every user has a lot of stuff on his hard drives..... . Saved mails (with important informations),
scanned documents, logins to websites, private photos, private videos, private text documents, private letters, etc, etc,
tons of 'unique' files that can't be replaced.
losing all this data should be quite horrible.....

 

[Cortex]

I thought long & hard about whether to vote or not but eventually decided it was far too much of a security risk ~

 

[shmu26]

Only "Software downloads from reputable sites are very likely to be replaced with malicious downloads".
I think i have the others covered or it's improbable to happen.

EDIT: I assume you mean what we are still paranoid about and not in general. I went with the first because a paranoid user will probably be afraid of all when you mention them

there is a trick in the wording of many of these choices, such as the one that you ticked, for instance. Most people don't think that these downloads are "very" likely to be hacked. It is something that happens so rarely that it is a newsworthy event when it happens.

 

[AtlBo]

All but the first two, but I don't think it's paranoia. All of these possibilities are why we try hard to secure our system(s).

Ranking the concerns, I would say-
1. My computer usage and online activities are being surveilled
2. Safe\legitimate programs can have hidden malicious code that lies-in-wait (as long as safe\legitimate means user deemed safe\legitimate-otherwise it would be a malicious program and not legitimate. This is for those programs with no signature or that are untrusted by security software but user chooses to trust)
3. All my money can be stolen right from within my bank's online banking portal
4. Financial malware will breach my system without even being installed on the system
5. The internet is full of hidden malware that can get onto the system and execute undetected

What are paranoid users afraid of? Well...maybe they aren't really paranoid after all, cuz you see...maybe THEY are out to get them

 

[SHvFl]

there is a trick in the wording of many of these choices, such as the one that you ticked, for instance. Most people don't think that these downloads are "very" likely to be hacked. It is something that happens so rarely that it is a newsworthy event when it happens.

Correct, i missed the very in the sentence which mean i have nothing to worry. Changed my selection.

EDIT: Can't select no option so i can't change my selection.

 

[kev216]

I'm not really paranoid, but if I'm obliged to choose one from the list, then I would choose 'My computer usage and online activities are being surveilled". Why? because that's something you don't really choose yourself in some cases. Your ISP collects information about your surfing habits, the AV that is scanning your system and upload things to the cloud are services you need to trust, but that you are never sure about where your data goes to. Same with the ULRs that you are visiting, they scan them, but do they keep track of them in a database? Social media is collecting and even calculating and predicting lots of stuff about you, even without account, you would be shocked what facebook for example already knows about you. Coockies keep information and spread it out. Search engines keep track of what you searched, based on your IP and I guess everyone can easily add more things to that list. Of course you choose what you give away but in any way, connecting to the internet means giving data away about yourself.
The others are things that you can - partially or at least try to - avoid. When the MS Servers will be hacked (possible of course, but that would take some effort), your AV can protect you against it. Same with the malicious downloads from sites, the exploits and the behaviour of those programs after running them on your machine. A good first defense against malware should do it, but like some people don't exaggerate in this and don't install every single software that tends to protect you from this and that. You really don't need 10 different kinds of software running in realtime, they can only confilict and cause more damage than needed. And most of them sounds better than they really protect.
The option I really don't understand is "Every single network packet is a risk". If you are really that paranoid you can better pull your network cable out of the wall and throw your computer in the trash. You can compare that by staying in your house your whole life because you are afraid to have a traffic accident.
About the last two, the financial malware on your system is in the same category that I talked about earlier. And the stolen money, if you do safe banking on a safe system, you shouldn't need to worry every minute that your money is going to be stolen.
If you don't click on every single thing on the internet and don't surf to shady sites, that should cover you already a lot. A good security suite will help you with that. You can't be 100% sure all the time of course. But we also don't have a magic medicine that we only take once and that protect us our whole life against every single disease and does that mean that every minute we have to worry about becomming very ill?

 

[Ink]

Not Paranoid.

I protect my system(s) with security as standard and use knowledge to protect my identity online and in reality.

Data stored on company servers are out of my control, but if breached, I would take necessary measures to secure my ID from outside threats. Examples below:

2010/2011 PSN Data Breach - Contacted Bank to renew/replace my Card
Avast Forum Breach - Changed Email and Password credentials
"I am going to hack you!" - Changed to System-Generated Password with 2 Factor Authentication enabled and removed Trusted Devices

We take precautions as we see fit, but being paranoid is a whole new level of [hidden]. Don't forget malicious software is just code, it can be created or destroyed. Security Breaches occur every day.

Details are limited as some may be offended, but all views are my own.

 

[_CyberGhosT_]

I agree with Spawn, I don't think I am so much "Paranoid" as I am "Aware" of the risks.
I voted for #4 seeing myself, and many others spend a great deal of time using it (the internet)
Cool choices Jeff

 

[Viking]

All the options above can be exploited in various degrees i thing, but I chose:

My computer usage and online activities are being surveilled

 

[ForgottenSeer 55474]

Hello I am also paranoid of all options