If you weren't worried enough about the security of your home computer and network, it may be time to step it up. A new study by Indiana University and Symantec has discovered (and, alas, made more public) a new hacking technique called "drive- by pharming." Of course, we can't use a name actually in the dictionary, but the gist of it is that your home router may be insecure.

First, keep in mind that a good percentage of home computers (and some business PCs) are wide open and already infected with "bot" software that turns them into zombies that spew out those millions of spam e-mails a day. So the first order of business for your computer has to be to clean and secure your PC. That means anti- virus, anti-spyware and anti-adware software needs to be front and center.

Simultaneous to that you also need to be concerned about this "pharming" thing. In normal pharming, users are redirected from normal Web sites to bogus sites that contain malicious software code that infects or harms your PC.

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