Laptop repairers should not need your password

Time and time again, we warn people about giving out their passwords so easily or not having any security on their laptop.  As a repairer, we do not generally need your passwords as we use alternative software to test any repairs carried out.  Only if our client needs us to extract data or fix a wireless issue do we need such information but this is very rare. 

Just recently, a laptop engineer was caught red-handed by an undercover TV journalist who was actually investigating the quality of service provided by laptop repair shops.  Grzegorz Zachodni was sentenced to nine months at London Magistrate's Court after being caught stealing bank details from the reporter.   Zachodni was working at Laptop Revival, a computer repair shop in Hammersmith, when the reporter took her laptop to be fixed, it had a minor fault. The fault was a loose memory chip; a simple fault to fix but the engineer had an unusual approach.

Webcam footage and the covert software revealed that Zachodni spent 20 minutes looking at personal files, including a large number of the victim's photographs as well as files marked "private" - these contained the victim's bank details. He was also seen using a USB stick around his neck to copy details from the computer. He later made six attempts to access the reporter's bank details using the password and login details from the computer.

So please be very careful when you hand over your personal machine, our best advice is to take out the hard drive altogether if the problem is not related to it.