Don't let campaign season make you gullible

After one of the Presidential candidate debates held at Drake University earlier this year, I went out to my car and found this CD or DVD sitting on my windshield, just like others all over the parking lot.

I'm a pretty technology-friendly kind of guy, so why don't I know whether it's a CD or a DVD?

Because I threw it into the trash after taking this picture.

While I admire the enthusiasm of any legitimate organization that uses new media to reach out to spread their message (that's a First Amendment right, after all), I would never, ever put a CD or a DVD into my computer unless I knew exactly who gave it to me, and why.

A study was conducted last year in London to determine just how many people would accept a "free CD" outside a train station, and then try it out on a workplace computer. The number was huge: 70% of the discs were used.

The problem is that those discs could have contained anything: Spyware, viruses, or even backdoor codes that could have allowed outsiders to gain insider access to company networks.

Unless you know exactly who's sending you a CD or DVD, and why they're doing it, leave the stupid things in the trash. Just because we have the first-in-the-nation caucuses doesn't mean we have to be gullible about our computer security.