We used to keep our typewriter ribbons and all copies of reportage (cassette tapes, Xeroxed stuff, note books, etc.) locked up. Same can be done with thumb drives, a small non-online laptop, and the such.

I imagine for high priority targets, it would nevertheless be a real bug-a-boo to keep from hitting sites that might install key logger or other malware. So, it might require some vigilance, and a good measure of expertise, but it might be possiblie to maintain data security.

Regular backups are a big help, but one must be diciplined. The beauty of good back ups of course, is if a problem is even vaguely suspected, do a restore from last backup.

If you keep data and operating system on separate partitions, even better — ’cause viruses, keyloggers, etc., would be stored on operating system partition, and backing that up for restore in case of trouble is a minor inconvenience compared to reinstalling, reconfiguring everything. Backing up the master boot record (first 512 bytes on drive) is a good idea too, because of boot sector viruses — many PC (including laptops) BIOSes allow write protecting the boot sector, but if your backup software takes care of boot sector too, write protecting might interfer.

First line of defense however is avoiding malicious sites, networks, and/or using browser options, and other software to prevent, or detect problems — malicious software picked up from a network can scan all your partitions, in which case backup and restore strategy is only a secondary line of defense.

Just to emphasize, a piece of malware installed on your computer is an ongoing threat — keylogging comes to mind especially. Also, such a program might, for instance, regularly scan all partitions, and communicate over networks. But, such a program will only reside on the operating system partition, and possibly boot sector, but this would more likely be a very small, sort of trigger for a larger program stored on operating system partition. So restoring the operating from a backup would eliminate any such problem. Don’t forget to install, configure, and backup the operating system disconnected from any network to the extent possible.

Oh! Firewall! Install a firewall, because you never know who is snooping on any local area network (behind the same router you’re behind) you’re connecting too, and many networks (public wifi) are not secure — they’re wide open, and anyone can see everything going from your device to the wifi router. Here, a firewall is an added measure for avoided exploit vulnerability — you can control what connects to computer, and what connects from your computer.

Be aware that if your device is on, it could be connecting to any in range public wifi without you knowing it! There’s probably software available that lets you force your computer to be less promiscuous. Short of that, disable networking until you’re ready to connect.

Or, you could just adopt a security expert.

I’m kidding. All of this sounds like a lot. Not really though. Most of it is configuration. The other is a simple routine of backing up. For most, backing up the operating system is a one time thing — on restore, you may have to do some minor reconfiguring with respect to ongoing system changes or software installation you might have done. And backing up data partition(s) is easy, with no need for worrying that you’re copying a virus or otherwise malware with the backup as such software could not run without software on the operating system (or boot sector) telling it to.

Thus, “her” computer wasn’t hacked, because it wasn’t hers. Any IT department worth the name, should have known who logged on to “her” pc unless the culprit somehow stole her password. If so, how would she know someone had gained access? The simplest thing to do would be to make a copy any documents in the hard drive. The IT department might notice such a thing, but she never would. If so, why would they tell her about it?

The story makes no sense: More cloak and dagger BS from C”BS”.

I have known two “well-respected” journalists. They know very well how to police their own thoughts.