Today, protecting communications in and out of your system is just as crucial as anti-virus protection. Because the same touch points that make the Internet such an immersive experience—always on, open communities, speed, universal reach—also help identity thieves perpetuate online fraud at a staggering rate.

"So many defenseless systems, so little time," might be their daily sigh. (The 59,000 individuals at the University of Texas, who recently had their private records stolen by an identity thief, might concur.)

Indeed, faced with a swelling pool of potential victims, hackers are automating their attacks, leaving even computers connected to the Internet via basic dial-up accounts at risk. Admittedly, DSL and cable modem users, often perpetually connected to the Internet, are especially vulnerable, because attackers simply have more time to probe, more opportunities to break in.

At any given moment, your PC potentially faces a barrage of scans checking for weaknesses, open shares and compromised systems. And guess what? Hackers don't play favorites. Why not your computer?

A PC's Worst Security Nightmare

For outright control, one favorite hacking ploy is deploying Trojan horses, so-called because they piggyback as attachments on emails or shared programs. (Note: Good anti-virus protection, such as VirusScan Online, can eradicate such malware before it goes to work.) Once active on your system, the worst Trojans allow remote hackers to control your PC from across town or across the globe, routinely monitoring your activities, viewing or deleting files, even hijacking your PC (i.e., turning it into a zombie) for attacks against other computers on the Internet.

Once your system is compromised, automated scanning tools make it easy for hackers to locate your exposed machine when you connect—even if you're on a slow dial-up connection.

According to SpywareInfo.com, spyware is proliferating like locust, often piggybacking during downloads of popular peer-to-peer programs like Bearshare, Kazaa, Imesh and Limewire. Some tap your own bandwidth and processor power to market products right back to you, others co-opt your PC's resources to track your browsing patterns for aggregating marketing servers. Worse, so-called "key loggers" can even remotely monitor your keystrokes and passwords, feeding them to remote controllers.

Your best defense is to block the barbarians before they breach the gate. A bi-directional firewall, for example, McAfee Personal Firewall Plus, helps secure your computer's connection to the outside world, working constantly behind the scenes to keep data in and hackers out. McAfee Personal Firewall Plus is especially adept at denying outbound Internet access to malicious programs already on your desktop, an internal deflector shield, if you will.

From mcafee.com/esecuritynews/june2003

Next article: "How to protect your computer", tips on using antiviral software and firewalls.