He’ll use them to subvert your computer, gain access to your information and enlist your computer as the latest addition an underground ‘botnet’ army of computers responsible for sending out spam, spyware and participating in denial of service attacks to take down websites, as has happened with Yahoo, AOL and others in the past.

Want proof of the drive-by pharming attack at work? Symantec’s online video that accompanied their research http://tinyurl.com/2uqwug shows the threat is real and is worth watching.

If you’re still not convinced, take a look at www.routerpasswords.com and www.phenoelit.de/dpl/dpl.html. Here you’ll find the default usernames and passwords for most of the routers released over the past few years. Other sites list this information too, and one thing for sure: your router is likely on those lists!

But there are plenty of other net nasties to worry about. Using an older operating system, such as Windows 95 or 98, practically guarantees your computer is not under your control if you use it to access the Internet, as it could well be if you are a Windows XP user still stuck on Service Pack 1.

There are viruses, spam, spyware programs, websites designed to load spyware onto computers with older browsers (as newer ones such as Firefox 2, Opera 9 and Internet Explorer 7 have better security), Nigerian scam emails, phishing attacks, cross-site scripting attacks, man-in-the-middle, rogue hotspots, keyloggers and more.

And now there’s drive-by pharming! It begs the question of what’s next. More viruses and malware for smartphones on the way, more online criminals looking to exploit Internet users worldwide and other ways to attack computers we haven’t even yet thought of.

Of course, the ‘good guys’ are fighting back too. Anti-phishing software developer TrustDefender www.trustdefender.com has discovered a way to eliminate the phishing threat – by making your computer a part of the overall security chain, instead of an unknown factor at the other end of the line.

Then there’s the latest 2007 Internet security initiatives for consumers and small businesses, such as Norton’s 360 online Internet Security/backup/support and more that takes the ‘Internet Security’ package to a new level, as Microsoft enters the Internet Security and backup market to compete with Symantec, McAfee, Trend, CA, Zone Alarm and everyone else.

But what's the most important part of all? Can you guess? It's you! To find out what you need to do, please go to page 2 and the conclusion - the safety of your bank account and other details, and even the safety of the Internet... depends on it!