Have any passwords, love letters, naughty pictures or sensitive business information stored on your hard drive? It's almost embarrassingly easy for a hacker to break into a networked computer and retrieve your personal information.

Does your computer have an interior microphone or an interior video recorder? If yes, these technologies can be activated without your knowledge. Hackers can not only get your data files, but they can record sound and video files of the conversations and activities taking place in your work area.

Almost everyone knows the importance of protecting their system against viruses. My anti-virus software knocks off at least 3-4 viruses every week. And most people with a direct Internet connection (i.e. cable, ADSL) know the importance of installing firewall software. My excellent (and free) Zone Alarm firewall (www.zonelabs.com/) protects me from hacks coming through open computer ports.

But recently I learned about a third threat -- the potential danger of malicious codes coming in through ports that I must leave open in order to access the Internet. Hostile ActiveX codes, Java codes and Windows scrap objects can be buried in Rich Text email, embedded in documents, hidden in games and electronic postcards, or downloaded from web sites.


It's a safe bet that no responsible webmaster has knowingly placed hostile code on the site. However, many sites are vulnerable to attacks from hackers, and hackers have no such scruples. Imagine logging on to your favorite sports site and unknowingly downloading hostile code that damages your operating system, installs software that allows third parties to use your computer for denial of service attacks, or makes your personal data available to prying eyes. For full information, refer to an article recently published on ZDNET. http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2764074,00.html

To discover whether your system is vulnerable, visit Finjan web site and try their three online tests. They'll check your system for vulnerability to hacks from malicious ActiveX, Java and Windows scrap objects. I was shocked to discover that Finjan's code was able to hack my system easily and quickly. As proof, it created a desktop folder and named it You Have Been Hacked. The folder contained a sampling of Word documents found on my hard drive and a ten-second .wav recording of the sounds in my workstation. Scary. This information, and more, would have been readily available to anyone who wanted to hack in. Needless to say, I installed Finjan's free SurfinGuard Pro software for protection. I'd recommend any Windows users try these tests. You might be glad you did (http://www.finjan.com/).

Interested in knowing just how much information a skilled hacker could get from your machine? Check out this web site called Beyond Enemy Lines: http://belps.freewebsites.com

The webmaster, Man in the Wilderness (MITW), claims to be an Internet security expert. MITW is apparently a "white hat" hacker who uses his skills to protect his customers from attack.

As the story goes, the head of a professional spamming operation repeatedly forged MITW's domain for spamming purposes. (Professional spammers typically hide their identities by using forged domains.) Finally, in retaliation, MITW hacked the spammer's computer and published his findings on this web site. The details make fascinating reading.

After breaking into this woman's system, our white-hat hacker obtained and published screen captures of spam software while it was using his forged domain name to send thousands of emails. MITW also obtained copies of email messages discussing various spam operations, ICQ message logs and much more. Similarly, he found and published semi-nude pictures of the woman and her colleagues and samples of erotic writing found on the computer.

Some might say that this woman deserved what happened to her. Perhaps she did. If the content on the site is true, she was involved in some particularly nasty activities. However, the real message is just how vulnerable our computers can be to hackers if we aren't more than a little careful.

This woman and her cohorts were running a professional spamming operation. You might think they, of all people, would have protected themselves against hackers. But they did not. Perhaps, like me, they thought they were protected. Remember that my computer was vulnerable in the Finjan testing, despite running up-to-the minute virus software and a firewall that is rated as one of the best.

How about you? Could you stand up to a hacker attack? Protecting a computer is now a three- pronged fork. We need anti-virus software, firewalls and malicious code blocking software.

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About the Author

June Campbell Writing Services by Nightcats Multimedia Productions -- FREE eBook, "Beginner's Guide to Ecommerce" -- Newsletter, business articles, email marketing course -- How-to guides for business proposals, business plans, -- JV contracts, brochure designs http://www.nightcats.com