If you are using your computer on the internet, you are asking for big trouble if you do not have a firewall (sort of an electronic condom) installed and operational.
An unprotected Windows computer will be found and infected by some sort of harmful program within minutes of being connected to the internet.
We have personal experience of this when we installed a computer for my wife’s parents, and the software firewall ZoneAlarm started reporting attempted breaches 2 minutes after it was connected to the internet for the first time.
Tests by USA Today and AvantGarde back this up with a series of formal tests with computers running various operating systems which were left connected to the internet for 6 weeks show the following frightening results:
Attempted attacks PER DAY according to Operating system:
Windows XP Service Pack 1: 8,177
OS X: 8,155
Windows Small businss Server: 1,400
Windows XP Service Pack 2: 82
XP with Zone Alarm: 50
Linspire (Linux) : 46
What is especially worrying is that authorities have estimated that 67% of people do not use a firewall on their systems.
The message is clear. Make sure that you have a firewall on your system.
Posted by Eric G.
