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All too often, we take security too lightly until it's too late. Just because I was using a dial-up connection to the Net, I thought I was invisible to anyone looking for a computer to invade. WRONG! I knew that broadband connections like DSL and Cable modems used a static IP address each and every time you were online. Correction, since you're "online" ALL the time with those connections, you are the equivalent of a SITTING DUCK in a shooting gallery for hackers scanning ports looking for a system to "explore". Anyway, I thought I was invincible to this sort of attack behind my random generated IP address each time I logged on. Imagine my surprise when my cursor suddenly moved on it's on while I was reading some rather lengthy text on a website. I immediately logged off and after my breathing returned to normal, went looking for some defense against this sort of thing.
You see, there are many and assorted means for hackers to gain access to and control of your computer. A trojan virus is another way. This is a computer virus that is transmitted in the usual fashion as other viruses, except it doen't openly attack your system. It just contacts it's main computer when you're online and lets that computer (and operator) have access to your computer's system. This is the manner in which the "denial-of-service" attacks were carried out against Yahoo! and other sites recently. The hackers had remote control of thousands of people's computers and simultaneously had them barrage Yahoo! with requests for pages, etc. The resulting barrage caused Yahoo's servers to become overloaded and shut down. The saddest part is that NONE of those people realized that their computer was being controlled by someone else at any time. Prevent this sort of nonsense with Zone Alarm Pro. The download trial is free and if you decide to keep it, the price of peace of mind is surprisingly low. See for yourself how easy it is to protect yourself on the Net. |
