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 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 story goes, 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 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 woman and her colleagues and samples of erotic writing found on computer.

Some might say that this woman deserved what happened to her. Perhaps she did. If content on site is true, she was involved in some particularly nasty activities. However, 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 Finjan testing, despite running up-to-the minute virus software and a firewall that is rated as one of 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.

Think about this idea for a moment. Let it sink in as to what I'm telling you here. What is your favorite pass-time? What is your hobby?

Do you get burnt out when you are spending time on your hobbies?

Does an auto enthusiast watch clock at a Saturday afternoon drag race?

Does a knick-knack fanatic get bored at world's largest flea market?

Do sports fans wish football season was much shorter?

If you develop your business around a topic that you love, that you enjoy spending time on, that you can't wait to get home and fire up computer to work on...

motivation becomes a non-issue.

Besides...isn't enjoying what you do one of key factors to success? I hate to be one to break it to you, but true happiness isn't all about money.

Persistence - You have to stick with it. You can't quit. Don't lose faith.

There will be bad times, but you have to keep going. You won't make as much money as you wanted to one month. You won't get quite as many subscribers or visitors out of that advertising campaign. The 'killer ad' that you just knew was going to pull like crazy...won't.

These setbacks are a fact of life. Accept them and deal with them accordingly. Learn from your mistakes and move on.

If you keep right attitude during bad times, good times will be that much sweeter.

Luck - Yep, its going to take a little luck as well. But if you follow above guidelines, you can make your own good luck.

Luck is being in right place at right time. Luck is making right decision at that crucial moment. Luck is buying low and selling high. Luck is realizing that you made a mistake and correcting it right before everything crashes.

The more knowledgeable you are about your subject matter, more time you spend educating yourself about it, more you work at becoming an expert in your field, more luck you will have!

When you know ins-and-outs of your industry, you WILL be in right place at right time. You WILL know when to buy and when to sell. You WILL know what decisions to make, and when to make them.

Correcting a mistake? This is nothing more than testing an idea and dumping ones that didn't work.

Don't sit back and leave it to fate...

make your own good luck!

So, whenever I'm asked how can you become successful on Net, I tell them to work hard, pick a subject that they totally enjoy, learn everything they can about that subject, stay strong during bad times, and stick with it!