Here’s an acronym for our times: PEBKAC. It’s probably happened to you at some point, and you’re lucky if it hasn’t. But it probably will…

As the BBC explained in a report this morning, “When you ring IT support, you know the geek on the other end of the line thinks you’re an idiot. It’s the heavy sigh and patronising tone that give it away. In fact, they have an acronym for us – PEBKAC. It stands for Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair. That’s you and me.”

Other similar error types identified by IT professionals are:

PICNIC: Problem In Chair, Not In Computer

ID–10T: just pronounce those letters as a word — you’ll get it …

IBM: Idiot Behind Machine

Don’t let yourself become a PICNIC today. Back up; use an array of complicated passwords and change them frequently; don’t click on links in weird or sketchy emails; and don’t offer your personal info on request.

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