Who's Peering Into Your Computer?

Written by June Campbell


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 ofrepparttar conversations and activities taking place in your work area.

Almost everyone knowsrepparttar 119110 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) knowrepparttar 119111 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 --repparttar 119112 potential danger of malicious codes coming in through ports that I must leave open in order to accessrepparttar 119113 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 onrepparttar 119114 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 ofrepparttar 119115 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/).

How DO you become successful on the Internet?

Written by Chuck McCullough


Everyone onrepparttar Internet is looking forrepparttar 119109 ultimate get-rich-quick scheme. At least that is whatrepparttar 119110 people sellingrepparttar 119111 ultimate get-rich-quick scheme would like you to believe.

Which one isrepparttar 119112 'ultimate'? Well, if you hear them tell it, theirs is, of course.

"Turn $5 into $50,000,000,000 in 30 days with no effort!" Did Bill Gates figure out how to condense his lifetime into 30 days? I doubt that he would say he got where he is today with no effort.

Are you listening to these guys, or do you REALLY want to make money onrepparttar 119113 Internet? Becoming instantly rich onrepparttar 119114 Net is aboutrepparttar 119115 same as sitting around waiting for your lottery numbers to hit.

I like to believe that we're smarter than that. We realize thatrepparttar 119116 only way to truly become successful at anything requires a lot of hard work, motivation, persistence, and luck.

Now let me explain each of these points.

Hard work - This is a no-brainer. You ARE NOT going to be able to turn on your computer, walk away from it, and expect to end up with a successful business.

You have to work at it. The more productive work you put into your website and your marketing efforts,repparttar 119117 greaterrepparttar 119118 rewards.

Notice that I said 'productive' work.

It is easy to spend 20 hours a day onrepparttar 119119 web and not do anything constructive for your business. You have to focus your efforts to makerepparttar 119120 above statement true.

To put it a different way, if you spend 20 hours a day adding content to your site, refiningrepparttar 119121 design, promoting it, testing and retesting to learn what works and what doesn't, you WILL seerepparttar 119122 results.

Many websites fail not becauserepparttar 119123 owner didn't work hard enough, but because he didn't work smart enough.

Motivation - How do you stay motivated to enable you to surviverepparttar 119124 months and months of extremely long days and nights glued to your monitor?

Is itrepparttar 119125 lure of having a successful web business someday?

The idea of eventually being able to quit that job that you hate?

Believe me you will hit low points, you will get frustrated, and probably even utterrepparttar 119126 words "at this rate I'm never going to make it".

So how do you stay motivated? The above questions can help, but I thinkrepparttar 119127 absolute most important motivator is to pick a topic that you love. When you are working on a subject that you totally enjoyrepparttar 119128 low points will be far less frequent, and have far less impact on you.

Your mind will be inrepparttar 119129 places it is supposed to be instead of constantly watchingrepparttar 119130 bottom line. If you are trying to create a successful business with something you have absolutely no interest in...you are setting yourself up for failure before you even get started.

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