Every now and then I get a message pop up on my laptop
telling me that my computer is at risk from some virus, malware, spyware or
tiny child hacking genius in North Korea, despite the fact that I have McAfee
running. I purchased it when I got the machine, I updated it after a year, and
my subscription is still active. So why is my computer at risk? When I try to
find out, by following whatever technological jargon appears with the message,
I am told in bold red letters that some aspect of the protection – a firewall,
some kind of pre-scanning etc – is currently turned off. Why is it turned off?!
I didn’t turn it off! Admittedly I never knew it was on, but I never turned it
off! I don’t even know how to turn it off! I assume McAfee identified that it
was necessary and included it to begin with, but now, by some mystifying stroke
of fate, it is suddenly off. This is obviously bad news as McAfee is upset and
encouraging me to pay more to subscribe again to the protection that I don’t
understand why it thinks I need and that I thought I already had. I also don’t
know how to turn it back on. In the end I have to resign myself to the fact
that my computer has decided to switch something off and hope that it will
realise the error of its ways and restore it before it succumbs to the
undoubted risk that now hangs over it. It hasn’t fallen victim yet to my
knowledge, but I have a sense that cyberdoom is just the click of a button
away. McAfee appears to have protected me from everything except its own ads,
junk and spam messages.
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