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To: Ken Adams who wrote (47414)	8/22/2005 7:31:01 PM
From: ILCUL8R	Read Replies (1) of 110626

You are probably OK. Those more expert than I can correct me here but this is my take: 1. A virus is easy to avoid if it comes as an attachment to an email. microscum.com 2. More dangerous is the stuff that piggybacks on those damned popups hiding behind the graphics they display on screen that work to infect your machine. Keygrabbers are an example. They scoop up all your keystrokes and periodically upload them to a server in Nigeria or Ukraine (or where ever). Machines so infected may seem OK to the user and the user doesn't know what periodically is sent out of his machine. The upload of saved keystrokes can take just a few seconds and when the user is not watching. 3. Another source of entry for mal-ware are open ports. Remember the Gibson web site: grc.com A machine with open ports is an invitation for miscreants who run scanners and, when open ports are found, invade the machine unbeknownst to the user. A machine thus invaded can report key strokes, passwords, private financial info, etc., to a remote server. And, they can attempt to invade other machines, for example all those in your email address book. Keeping ports closed and stealthed is vital, especially for users with broadband connections that assign a static IP address to the client (you). Well, this is an example or two of why it is important not only to protect against invasions but to protect against sending out info from your machine that you did not know was happening. A periodic use of ZA does this for me. You can configure it to only allow certain software to contact the internet and send out info. This is just the opposite of a router. A router only allows in packets from a site requested by the user. Mal-ware can send out packets from your machine and the router thinks you sent them so they are passed by your hardware firewall. The M$ software firewall has been criticized for doing the same thing. Gibson (at the site above) extolls the virtues of ZA for it is a true 2-way firewall and protects you from both unrequested and unauthorized incoming and outgoing packets. Dick Do you have broadband with a static IP address? Do you have a hardware firewall (router)?

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