Look out -- the computer cops are on to you

[Renew Deal]

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Years ago, I worked in the IT department of a company that staffed employees around the clock. Most of the employees had never used a computer before, so we were starting at square one with our training. We got a lot of IT calls at first for every issue imaginable, but over time most employees became fairly computer literate.

One of the night shift supervisors was a few years away from retirement. He'd taken to computers pretty enthusiastically, but at times, we noticed that he definitely felt like he was dealing with something completely out of his league.

One night, he called me about 2:45 a.m. and woke me up from a dead sleep. I could tell from his voice he was very nervous and clearly shaken up about something. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about.

He kept saying over and over, "What do I tell them when the police arrive?"

I kept saying, "What happened? What's wrong? Calm down, everything will be fine. Why are the police on their way anyway?"

Finally he calmed down enough to blurt out: "I was doing nothing wrong, really, then all of a sudden my screen at my PC turned blue and in big white letters it says, I HAVE PERFORMED AN ILLEGAL OPERATION AND WILL BE SHUT DOWN."

I explained to him what the statement meant, and he eventually calmed down. We even laughed about it together the next day.
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http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/look-out-computer-cops-are-you-303