What happens is that hackers run scanning utilities looking
on the Internet for machines they can break into. It is much like
a burglar walking down a row of cars in a parking lot checking
to see if any are unlocked.
Our product does two things:
- It "locks" the system with a personal, dynamic firewall
that prevents the hacker from breaking in.
- It logs all such attempts so you know they are occurring.
Many customers are worried when they see these notices.
They shouldn't be. This type of activity has been going in
the background for a long time, they just never knew.
Buying our product is like lifting the carpet and seeing
all the cockroaches underneath.
However, while most "attacks" aren't really targeting the
individual (they are just part of a sweep), sometimes
people are targeted. For example, joining chat-rooms often
reveals your IP address to other people, some of whom may
attack you.
Another type of attack that is beginning to become more popular
is against cable-modem and DSL users, who have the same IP address
whenever they are online. As a result, people who know you may
find out your IP address, and then attack your computer.
Therefore, you can look at the event log to see if someone
is targeting you in partcular. If you see only a single "attack"
from somebody, then it is probably just one of the thousands
of hackers on the Internet running a scan. If you see many
different attacks from someone, then he/she might be going
after you. At that point, you might want to gather
the evidence to send to the hacker's ISP
(remember that your own ISP really can't help you). Please
see Knowledge Base article q000016.
