Thursday 21 January 2016

Hacked off by hackers



Hacked off by the hackers

"You've been hacked" my good friend and tech wizard Andi announces.

"But how?”  I sheepishly reply. 

"By opening your e mail attachment and answering the password question." 

“What now?"  I say feeling glummer by the second, like some contestant in a quiz show that gets dumped out on the first question. 

"You will need to phone your bank, Amazon, E-bay etc. to change your passwords,” and in that second you know that a few hours of your day have just gone up in a pile of pungent smoke.

"Hello this is Rachel how can I help you?" 

"Morning Rachel, I may have been hacked and need to change my passwords etc.".  

"No problem Guy, let me run you through some security questions".

 The equivalent to Who Wants to be a Millionaire begins.   "Name, date of birth, post code?"   I am off to a flier.   "Second and fourth character of existing password, wife's maiden name?"  There is no stopping me, I begin to feel smug, a smile breaks out on my lips.   "And lastly, name of your favourite teacher?"

You are kidding, I begin to sweat, favourite teacher, I hated my teachers, a favourite?

Rachel presses me, the sand in the egg timer clearly running out.

"Mr Amos?”

“Wrong, I'm afraid, would you like another go?"  It's Gollum versus Bilbo all over again. 
"Miss Curtis or Mr Cooksey," I gamble.

"Both wrong I'm afraid, we will have to go right back to the beginning!"

I hang up, and on that very subject imagine doing likewise with the miserable so and so who so rudely messed up my day.

I guess we all face similar days and frustrations that rob us of joy and peace. So we pray, “deliver me from the evil one”,  knowing that God alone can free us and deliver us from the results of hacking and indeed from being hacked off!