What happens when you connect a Windows XP box to broadband and forget to turn on the firewall

Sobering piece by the Washington Post‘s Kathleen Day. (Free subscription required.)

“My problem began the last Sunday in July, when my nearly teenage daughter, newly returned from a month away at camp, announced, ‘Something’s wrong with the computer.’

In fact, her comment marked the start of a much larger headache, one that launched an odyssey that has taken $800 and roughly 48 man-hours over nearly three weeks to end. During that time, my personae alternated, usually several times a day. One moment I was the computer addict, the person stuck to the keyboard for hours and hours on end, driven by belief in a holy grail, that one more attempt would fix things. Then, when I pondered the time being wasted, I was an aspiring vigilante, keen to hunt down and kill all computer hackers…”

Lots more in that vein. It’s a great story, well told. And from my experience, quite a common tale. One more reason to stick to Macs and Linux….