To the Hackers Who Suck Productivity Out of Our Society

As the LMF4HMW blogger and small business owner, I have a tremendous appreciation for the benefits afforded to our world by marketplace activities. Businesses create jobs, responsibility, valued products and services and opportunities for advancement in society. They also pay taxes, which fund programs, maintain operations, and help the less fortunate. (I'm resisting the urge to be negative re federal and state spending here.)

Today, I was forced to abandon my small business -- the needs of my clients, following up on proposals written for future revenue, and my personal advancement goals (which included exercising, maintaining calm and running two important errands).

Instead, I spent the last 10 hours trying to fight off a variety of Trojan horse malware viruses installed on my computer by who knows what group of a**holes. The first hour phone call went to my cherished tech support person, who advised me to contact my Trend Micro Antivirus software. The second two hours were spent on hold and speaking to this tech team who determined that particular virus rendered them helpless. The remainder of the hours were spent on four separate calls to Microsoft where a number of scans were run and an incredible amount of support rendered. Approximately 9 hours and 45 minutes after my first phone call, I finally have access to my computer.

I figure the cost of lost productivity and potential business, lost benefits for clients (if I'd made two PR calls and generated two stories, that would represent a big promotional push for them) and my personal time is valued at approximately $5000. And there's no guarantee that the problem is fixed.

So to the people who find it entertaining to create problems for those of us who are trying to create value, I have this to say: There is no punishment strict enough. And there is a special place in hell for all of you. Just because no LMF4HMW reader would spend a moment even considering you -- I just feel hackers must be dorky men, does not give you the right to steal from us.

To my LMF4HMW readers, let this be a reminder to back up your data with a portable drive and online, have anti-virus and malware detection installed, run updates automatically if you're on Windows. Unfortunately, even if you do all of that as I did, you still may get hit. In that case, open a bottle of wine -- I'm enjoying a Dr. Loosen 2007 Riesling which is going down very smoothly -- something a little sweet to combat the tech nightmare I've just endured.