For a sobering reminder of how much danger Internet viruses pose, one need look no further than Nicholas Weaver's assessment of so-called Warhol Worms.
The computer scientist based at University of California, Berkeley, begins his report by quoting Andy Warhol: 'In the future everybody will have 15 minutes of fame'.
Fifteen minutes, in Mr Weaver's opinion, is all the time it would take for a well-targeted computer virus to spread across the globe. By coming up with a list of as few as 10,000 Internet-connected computers, and by instructing the virus to continually delegate to newly infected computers the work of scanning the Web for vulnerable machines, hackers can easily achieve widespread damage in under an hour.
To protect corporate networks against such attacks, Mr Weaver recommends multiple firewalls around and within those networks. But what about home users who are also in danger of having their personal computers (PCs) attacked or hijacked?
With the threat of Warhol Worms looming and with the increased use of 'always-on' broadband Internet connections at home, computer security experts are recommending personal firewalls for protecting home networks.
The largest anti-virus vendors sell them in off-the-shelf packages, and downloadable firewalls are also available from the Web. Possibly the most popular firewall download is Zone Alarm, available in both free and paid versions. The free version is more basic, while those who pay license fees of about US$30 receive more fully featured editions.