Lately, hackers have discovered they can sneak into your computer by sending look-alike imposters to the firewall's gate. The hackers simply rename a snooping program or a virus so that it has the same file name as your browser or e-mail . . .
Lately, hackers have discovered they can sneak into your computer by sending look-alike imposters to the firewall's gate. The hackers simply rename a snooping program or a virus so that it has the same file name as your browser or e-mail program, and your firewall program will wave it right through the gate.

A report, published last month in eWeek, says the deception works with software firewalls made by Sygate Technologies (Personal Firewall) and by Symantec Corp. (Norton Personal Firewall). The trade publication then confirmed the problem by duplicating it in its own labs.

The trouble with a vulnerability like this is that it doesn't take a brain surgeon to bring it off. All a hacker has to do is rename his own program and send it along the way. So if you worry that --- by writing about this --- I'm giving hackers new ideas, stop worrying. This unattended back door is well-known in hacking circles, and some of the first do-it-yourself hacking programs already are taking advantage of it.

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