You're not going to like this answer, but it may help you care less. Ned Kock, Temple University's Fox School of Business, 2001 Blinker fluid is alive and well. It's not because people are stupid and can't figure out that electric lights do not require a replaceable liquid in order to function, it's that the mundane function of their automobiles is below their threshold of caring. The wealthier the individual, the more maladies they are willing to "pay away" - I used to routinely save a friend of mine's dad two to three thousand dollars every time he took his car to the shop. This is a man who used to rebuild Alfa Romeos... but he didn't really give a shit what they said about his fuel-injected Isuzu. The people whose computers you're maintaining? "They've got people for that." You're it. The situation, frankly, is that they know they will be protected from ruin by your intercession and they know that since they can count on you, they don't need to understand. I'm a rarity in the modern world. I can't think of any device or process in my life that I don't understand at surface level or better. It makes me uncomfortable to not understand, say, the balancing process of an ETF so I didn't invest in any until I was satisfied. But that makes me weird. Most people go through life with a hazy understanding at best of what makes their cars run, their cell phones turn on or their TVs work. It simply isn't important to their well-being. Internet literacy will increase IF and ONLY IF illiteracy poses an immediate and dire threat to the well-being of its users. And I do mean immediate and dire - the reason Australia puts diseased lungs on the sides of their cigarette packs is "causes cancer" is hypothetical and vague but "lungs like figgy pudding" is harder to ignore. "Your dick pics may end up on Twitter" won't do it. We're talking "gives you jock itch." If you could get electrocuted for bad browsing, browsing behavior would improve. Since you can't, you provide peace of mind and protection for those under your care because frankly, they don't give a fuck. They don't have to. And their threshold for having to is so much higher than yours that it isn't even worth considering. Sorry."In e-mail communication between two individuals X and Y, where X's rank is higher than Y, usually Y will be the one trying to impress X, not the other way around. So, chances are that X will be less careful when preparing e-mails to Y (and be more worried about the 'content' being conveyed), than Y to X."
I've worked places where some people will only pay attention to what's posted on the wall and nothing else. Others will read only email and nothing else. Others will only talk or phone calls, and nothing else. Others will only do text messages, and nothing else, etc. You're probably always gonna have to expect some people to not care about email. When dealing with people who think it's your job to do whatever they want, maybe tell them "I only have one rule, ..." I only have one rule, I don't remind people about due dates.
Jesus, dude. cryptolockers scare me. I legit called my wife and had her turn my Synology off when Synolocker showed up; I'm impressed that the hackers sold it all back. I suppose on the one hand the ecosystem is rewarded by propagating the notion that BTC does provide salvation, but at the same time, honor among thieves and all that. THAT SAID: dublinben makes some mighty-fine points as to the unnecessary complexity involved in day-to-day security. It's a rare user that feels any comfort in the command line but if you want to keep yourself safe, you have to get comfortable there. Networking protocols and their configuration are not written in civilian-parseable language and you can obfuscate a lot of malevolence. When I show people how to view source on their emails and how not to demand-load images, they think i'm a wizard. You'd think every ISP under the sun could agree to pop up a yellow "there are suspicious redirects in this email" but my experience is even when implemented, "this message may be a scam" mostly means "this message was sent from a smaller ISP." My suggestion? If you can figure out a way to make self-security empowering rather than degrading, you're halfway there. If someone can be convinced that having the skills to manage their own internet security is a cool thing (rather than the mark of a prole) they might just take it on.
YUP. Lol, it can be annoying yeah but it's also how I get paid for two different jobs...The people whose computers you're maintaining? "They've got people for that." You're it. The situation, frankly, is that they know they will be protected from ruin by your intercession and they know that since they can count on you, they don't need to understand.