Tech Q&A: The biggest hacking threats for the future

Q. What’s the biggest hacking threat you can see for the future?

A. Most of the scariest “future” hacking threats are possible right now, from hacked cars and firearms to cloned NFC payment systems and SIM cards. Image your car going into a ditch, a sniper rifle shooting at the wrong target, having your money stolen remotely or someone having complete access to your cellphone information. Then there are warnings that chemical plants are at risk, and there are ways hackers can easily cause fires in above-ground gas storage tanks. With computers in everything, and most industries not thinking as hard as they should about security, nothing is safe.

Q. I have a bunch of old Nintendo video games I want to get rid of. Is it worth it to try and sell them, or should I just toss them?

A. Sell them. There’s fast-growing market for vintage video games, and you might have a rare one someone wants. Games like “EarthBound,” “The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time” and other early Nintendo, Sony and Sega titles are going for $25 to $1,800 depending on their rarity and condition.

Q. I recently retired with a comfortable amount in savings and investments, but I’d really like to keep a close eye on it. Any suggestions?

A. There are plenty of sites that can help. Personal Capital, for example, combines every scrap of your financials in one place. You can see how much money you’ve spent in the past month and how much money you have in your bank accounts, stocks, IRAs, 401(k)s and other investments. On one page, you can link them and the bills you need to pay to see your net worth, and even get payment reminders.

Q. I upgraded to iOS 8 on my iPhone. Now when I’m typing it keeps filling in words for me, and they’re rarely the ones I want. How do I stop it?

A. It’s called Predictive text, and it’s supposed to learn what words you want and which ones you don’t over time. Unfortunately, that does mean suffering with it for a while. If you want to turn it off, go to Settings > General > Keyboard and set Predictive to off. Also, if you’re running into problems with your iPhone changing words you mistype to completely different words, you can turn off Auto-Correction in the same place.