Get them to use OneDrive or Google drive or iCloud to back up their laptop and phone. It doesn't happen often, but unrecoverable files on a laptop are the caus

Get them to use OneDrive or Google drive or iCloud to back up their laptop and phone. It doesn't happen often, but unrecoverable files on a laptop are the cause of great concern when they happen. OneDrive and iCloud are sort of "opt in" and normally you'd be suspicious about it, but the cost of losing the photos and documents far outweighs the security concerns for most non-tech people and having to waste hours trying to recover a busted drive in a laptop is both frustrating and heartbreaking. Tell them they need to stop clicking on everything in their email and to be very cautious about visiting a lot of places offering anything "free". Make them aware that their circle of friends doing "forwards from grandma" type emailing can unwittingly send you something malicious. It's nobodies fault, but stop clicking on that stuff. Two surprising vectors of infection seem to be the ad networks on a lot of faith based websites and niche dating websites (i.e. targeting older folk), please note I do not wish to stop people visiting faith based websites or trying to find love on the internet but for some reason the people who visit these sites seem to be more trusting/click happy and the malicious ad networks know this. Try to explain to them that "helpful" toolbars are usually malicious software. Do your best to make sure the update system on laptops is functioning. Try to set up some remote help for them i.e. Chrome remote desktop that doesn't require them to do much after the install other than let you manage their machine in an emergency. On a windows machine, make sure Defender is enabled. If they have more than 1 virus blocker installed, get rid of everything else except defender, especially if it take pre-loaded on a laptop they just bought. I don't have anything particular against the other virus software companies except they all seem to lard up laptops with a pile of un-needed nonsense that generates a lot of scary dialog boxes and notifications, and this is just confusing for non-technical people. I don't think simply telling people to buy a Mac and and iphone is terribly helpful, a lot of older folk still have some strange software they prefer to use for their word processing or an old printer they don't want to replace, and the cascade of trying to get them to switch to the apple ecosystem will be more trouble than it's worth.