I’ve been reading some things about personal computer security this afternoon. On my personal machine at home I run two firewalls, a virus scan program that runs in the background and does a full scan weekly, and two anti-virus programs (one of which also runs in the background, both of which do weekly scans). I’ve adjusted settings so that no one can change my registry without my knowing. I use Firefox & Gmail. I never open spam and never download strange attachments. I don’t run any IM software. My wireless router is restricted by client IP and protected with a WEP key. I do use a P2P sharing program, but it’s not Kazaa or anything like that.

Now, I’m probably in the top 5% of the general public regarding computer knowledge — not a hardcore programmer geek but not a novice either — and even with all the stuff I do to protect my machine, I still get thousands of probes, port scans & attacks, which means it’s happening to all of us. So, assuming that 5% number is accurate, you’ve got 95% of the population out there with god-knows-what happening to their PCs.

Yeesh.