Hewie Poplock

MEETING DATE: February 15, 2013

This month's speaker is someone we all need to hear. In this day and age, more and more of our financial affairs are handled online. That includes sites that may or may not have collected our social security numbers in the past. It could be a bank, a credit card, even a site like Amazon or Barnes & Noble may have information you wouldn't leave on a store counter. So why aere we so trusing of these sites, when we wouldn't loa our credit cards or tell our social security numbers to anyone, even people we trust.

To prevent what is known as identity theft (ID Theft), many procedures are already in place. Cybersecurity entails many aspects of privacy and safety issues, but for seniors in particilar, the combinatio of social security number plus our year of birth may spur an onslaught of prolems. Enter our speaker. Hewie has been a victim of ID Theft, and is going to speak from firsthand experience combined with many years of technical expertise. His passion is computers, but his background may be similar to those of us who have been unfortunate enough to understand the problem.

After Hewie was a victim of ID Theft, he put this presentation together and has been presenting it to groups for the past few years. He updates it with current data and examples, as well as localizing information about state laws to protect you.  The program includes ways that Identity Theft can occur, many misconceptions about it, and how to avoid ID Theft. Hewie also has many suggestions on what to do if you are a victim, plenty of examples and video footage illustrating how ID theft can occur.

Hewie will cover typically boring facts and figures with up-to-date and interesting information along with examples of actual instances of events leading to ID theft. Hewie will then give us some great suggestions on how to prevent you and your family from experiencing ID Theft and what to do if you become a victim. No matter how much you know about computers, there are certain things every one of us has to deal with when using a computer, but we don’t always deal with them efficiently. Our speaker will cover things that everyone can — and should — learn to keep their computer fast, safe, and easy to use. There will be time for questions at the end of the presentation.

Here is more about our speaker, with thanks to Hewie:

“I attended my first user group meeting armed with a yellow legal pad and 21 questions. Although only 4 of them got addressed at that first meeting, I knew that computer user groups were an invaluable source of help, information and friendship. That was in 1982 at an Osborne User group. I have been active in the user group movement ever since. After purchasing my first PC, I joined the local PC user group and immediately became active. It wasn't long before I was on the Board of Directors and involved with some SIGs. I moved in the late 80's to the Orlando, Florida area and joined the Central Florida Computer Society. I am a 4 time Past President, a 15 plus year leader of the Windows SIG, and a 15 plus year program chair. I am currently Windows SIG chair and Virtual Photo & Video SIG Chair.

I attended several of the early APCUG annual & semi-annual conferences in the early & late 90's in Las Vegas and in Atlanta. For several years I was the APCUG rep for CFCS. I attended some of the first meetings of the Florida Association of User Groups and became active and over the many years served as a Director, President, Vice President and Secretary. I acted as Program Chair for the 2009 FACUG conference which featured many presenters speaking about social media and introducing many attendees to some of the latest technologies, including streaming many of the sessions.

I am currently Vice-President of APCUG and webmaster. I am developing a new website using Drupal.

In my spare time over the years, I have been a sysop of my own BBS and assisted my user group sysops. As the world turned to the Internet, I moved there with my own website in 1995, and it continues to this day. I also have written the Hewie's Views & Reviews column for the CFCS newsletter since 2000. I am Vice-President of my local Fraternal Order of Eagles, as well as its webmaster and enewsletter editor.

I like to help computer users and give back much of what I have learned over the years.”

Be sure to come out and hear what's new in cyber security. Let's start the New Year by learning together.