Just a heads up every one. Norton just found something new installing a back door on my system after visiting 3D commune and here. It wasn't there the day before. I don't think any important data was compromised but you never can tell. Seems a firewall is a must. In any case I'm gone. Later. To the responsible party I'll just quote from the Data Docters site; "Anyone considering the e-mail wiretap as a snooping tool should think twice: the potential civil and criminal penalties are severe. According to Philip Gordon of the Privacy Foundation, the Federal Wiretap Act, 18 U.S.C. 2510-20, outlaws the interception of email content without the consent of at least one party to the communication. The Act also prohibits the use or disclosure of the fruits of an interception by anyone who knows that the interception itself was done without the consent of either party to the communication. Violators of these prohibitions are at risk of liability for minimum damages in a civil suit of $10,000 and criminal penalties ranging as high as five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for individuals and $500,000 for corporations."

????

If you are on the Internet and you are not using a firewall, you are either a fool or a sociopath... maybe both. ;-) For what it is worth, none of my scanners or my firewall has reported anything out of the ordinary and I visit Renderosity and 3D Commune at least 3 or 4 times a day (You are correct, I have no life). But warnings such as this are good. It keeps us on our toes.

Mine have not popped up with anything either and they are always nagging me about something!...

I have to add that mine has also been quite while visiting here. I don't go to 3d Commune.. so can't say there. One thing to check, even if you do have a firewall / Proxy setup.. is Gibson Research. http://www.grc.com Use the Shields up & Port Probe there. Very useful for plugging some of the more common holes. Steve is very helpful and has be doing this for a while. Even so far as to write the little tool recently released by the FBI for finding holes in your IIS server. (or nt in general).

This site sits behind a rather sophisticated firewall. Among other things, it performs an action on every incoming packet that verifies the validity of the source of the data packet. So, a man-in-the-middle attack is highly unlikely here.

oh boy... just when you thought it was safe to venture out into the world via the net, another way is thought up to ruin ur day... mean ol hackers,lol

Others are also reporting intrusions while on line here. I haven't gotten any pings lately myself tho.

My hardware firewall at home get hit 4 - 5 times an hour, 24 hours a day, whether I'm connected here or not. Realize, there are thousands and thousands of script kiddies around the world with nothing better to do than to scan IP addresses around the world.

something i've always dreamed about.... to have a single port open with a file attached to it with a lil virii sitting innocently in it,heehee

No, The virus would pass on from the culprit to many innocent people, like the current foot and mouth virus is among cattle etc herein England.

you are right... that would be a terrible shame,, just a pipe dream...