This 'free computer protection' is nothing of the sort

This security software is supposed to be free and offer safe protection of my files...

I get really worried whenever I get an email that tells me something about my computer or my broadband connection. It’s never good news – no-one ever writes to say that everything is working really well and I don’t need to worry.

And I get even more worried when the email is from some organisation hiding behind an incomprehensible email address.

Your computer's backup protection has expired!

So when the message is headed “Your computer backup protection has expired”, the panic alarms sound. What computer backup protection can they be talking about?  What service or subscription has expired? And if I did have something, how does the sender of this impossible to trace email – sent via a spamming service – know what is going on?

Here’s a few facts about me. Other than photos which I back up on a portable hard disk, I don’t really worry about saving things. Music? All I have on either of my computers comes from my own CDs – or if it’s from elsewhere, I really don’t care if it goes. Getting rid of stuff is quite liberating!

Articles? Like most journalists, I regard what I write as fish and chip paper once it goes – in any case, I use an email service that stores everything for almost ever on the “cloud”.

Most importantly, one laptop runs on an operating system that few others use. It’s a Linux derivative known as Kubuntu (please don’t ask me for more details but have a look on the website if you are interested – all the software is free).

So all in all, why target me?

You won't need a credit card!

Now the “exclusive offer” told me that it would backup everything for free and that I would not need a credit card.

OK, so maybe I won’t have my plastic cloned. But once you let anyone into your machine, you could be asking for trouble. It’s as if I just handed over the laptop to you and said, "Do as you please." If you were to run into a protected site, it is generally easy enough to get the password by asking for it. The “forgotten your password?” facility assumes you have control of your own machine.

But how good is this claimed back-up anyway?  It promises unlimited storage and automated everything. And it promises security and encryption.

However, if I offer encryption to someone, then maybe I can take it off again.

So your secrets are not as safe as you may think.

Scary statistics

Still, I take a peek at the website – using the malware resistant Kubuntu.

It’s simply not worth a evil person's time creating a virus or trojan to penetrate this system given how comparatively few use it. And in any case, I have to give a password before any update or change can work, unlike Microsoft.

The site is full of frightening statistics. It seems that there is a big risk my laptop will be stolen and an even bigger chance (around half) that I’ll lose something. So if I didn’t take advantage of the free offer, I would be really stupid.

Now whenever you see the word "free", look for the catch. It may be free for just a limited time. Or “free” might actually mean "not very much". This backup site only offers “free” for a fortnight, after which it’s time to get the credit card out. The price is not easy to find as the website goes big on the free trial, but you could end up with £10 or month or more. There are at least ten websites out there which are all virtually clones of each other.

Users generally say that it’s an expensive way to back up your life – you can get a terabyte of external storage for about £120 or a year’s subscription. They complain that quite a bit of the stuff on their machines is not copied onto the computing cloud, so it’s not as unlimited as it promises. And some fear their security has been compromised.

Unhappy backers-up also groan that – and this will surprise no one – cancelling the regular credit card payment is tough. Indeed, some found it impossible.