I was reading an article recently that said the average time it takes for a computer that is online 24-7 connected by a high speed DSL connection to be hacked is less than 24 hours. We watch for viruses and worms in our email and NEVER open an attachment that says .exe. But the busy little hackers get into our computers any time and can do all kinds of things including using our email to send out spam. I have several blockers on my computers. One is a virus program (mine happens to be Norton but there are several good ones). Then I have a fire wall on each computer. Then I have a firewall on the router connecting my computer to the internet DSL connection. I also use a spam blocker program which many of you have encountered. That program grabs about 60 messages a day and prevents them from getting to me. Most of them are porn and the illegal sale of prescription drugs. With all this blocking, how long do you think it would take for a hacker to hack into my computers? About a few seconds. No matter what we do they get through. The very best programs cannot stop them. The federal government's top security sites are regularly hacked. Some juveniles and people with juvenile minds think this is the most clever thing they can do. My spam blocker program regularly blocks messages allegedly returned by the mail demons that contend that they could not be delivered. These frequently contain viruses and worms. I never sent them but this is one of the latest scams to get people to open mail with viruses. Then there are the messages that purport to come from earthlink, aol, microsoft and others that say we need to know about a security issue immediately. These are all done by naughty people as the companies NEVER send these kind of emails. And we get messages that our order or account needs some work. Again these are NEVER sent by the companies. Email is in serious danger of becoming extinct for the simple reason that we cannot deal with all this junk. I use the internet for genealogical research and email. I never use it for anything else. We cannot control these hackers, and porn pedlers. They route their messages through other countries. Most originate in other countries. As soon as someone is on to them, they close that box and open another one. No laws we make are going to make any difference at all. The latest is for people to use the TDD for deaf people and stolen credit card numbers to order things by the gross and send it to foreign countries. I work very hard to stop spam mail and also any viruses or worms from attacking my computers. Hopefully, I will keep ahead of these guys. One thing I definitely do NOT want to do is see a charge of 1 cent per email as Bill Gates has proposed. Who is going to get charged? The recipient? How will we charge the sender that is in another country? Will everything go through Microsoft as Gates wants it to? Not a good idea at all in my opinion. End of editorial. I have no solution for this. Bette

Truer words were never spoken! It is a real headache. I got 163 emails today, 7 or 8 of which were of interest to me. Betty Bunker ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bette" <betterichs@earthlink.net> To: <BUNKER-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Friday, April 16, 2004 11:19 AM Subject: hackers > I was reading an article recently that said the average time it takes for a > computer that is online 24-7 connected by a high speed DSL connection to be > hacked is less than 24 hours. We watch for viruses and worms in our email > and NEVER open an attachment that says .exe. But the busy little hackers > get into our computers any time and can do all kinds of things including > using our email to send out spam. I have several blockers on my computers. > One is a virus program (mine happens to be Norton but there are several good > ones). Then I have a fire wall on each computer. Then I have a firewall on > the router connecting my computer to the internet DSL connection. I also > use a spam blocker program which many of you have encountered. That program > grabs about 60 messages a day and prevents them from getting to me. Most of > them are porn and the illegal sale of prescription drugs. With all this > blocking, how long do you think it would take for a hacker to hack into my > computers? About a few seconds. No matter what we do they get through. > The very best programs cannot stop them. The federal government's top > security sites are regularly hacked. Some juveniles and people with > juvenile minds think this is the most clever thing they can do. > > My spam blocker program regularly blocks messages allegedly returned by the > mail demons that contend that they could not be delivered. These frequently > contain viruses and worms. I never sent them but this is one of the latest > scams to get people to open mail with viruses. Then there are the messages > that purport to come from earthlink, aol, microsoft and others that say we > need to know about a security issue immediately. These are all done by > naughty people as the companies NEVER send these kind of emails. And we get > messages that our order or account needs some work. Again these are NEVER > sent by the companies. > > Email is in serious danger of becoming extinct for the simple reason that we > cannot deal with all this junk. I use the internet for genealogical > research and email. I never use it for anything else. We cannot control > these hackers, and porn pedlers. They route their messages through other > countries. Most originate in other countries. As soon as someone is on to > them, they close that box and open another one. No laws we make are going > to make any difference at all. The latest is for people to use the TDD for > deaf people and stolen credit card numbers to order things by the gross and > send it to foreign countries. > > I work very hard to stop spam mail and also any viruses or worms from > attacking my computers. Hopefully, I will keep ahead of these guys. One > thing I definitely do NOT want to do is see a charge of 1 cent per email as > Bill Gates has proposed. Who is going to get charged? The recipient? How > will we charge the sender that is in another country? Will everything go > through Microsoft as Gates wants it to? Not a good idea at all in my > opinion. End of editorial. I have no solution for this. > > Bette > > > ==== BUNKER Mailing List ==== > Post your information and queries. We love it. No BUNKER rock left untouched. Spelling variations ok - we don't "know" the original. > > > >