By the end of 2000, there were 6.6 million broadband-connected North American homes, according to a recent report by Kinetic Strategies, a Phoenix, Ariz., market researcher. In March, that number jumped to 7.8 million. By 2004, U.S. home broadband subscribers are expected to exceed 36 million, according to RHK Inc., a South San Francisco telecommunications research firm. High-speed connections make computers a tempting target for all kinds of malicious hackers, called crackers. The Yankee Group, a Boston-based research firm, says about 75 percent of broadband systems have been scanned by hackers, and that half of those scanned have been compromised.
Scanners look for open ports, the software doors into and out of a computer.
It's the digital equivalent of walking down the street trying doorknobs. So crackers harvest long lists of Internet addresses where anyone can waltz right in. Once inside, intruders can pull any number of dirty tricks. Identity thieves have been known to steal personal and financial details like bank account numbers, passwords, Social Security numbers and birthdates. That's what Gordon D. Clark figures happened to him.