"Once you become aware of how a con game works you're in a much better position to defend yourself," reformed hacker Kevin Mitnick (defensivethinking(1)) said on Monday night's program. He chronicled his life before and after his arrest for computer crimes, and offered tips to protect one's private information.

"What the worm did was exploit a known vulnerability," Mitnick said of the recent Internet intrusion that slowed down systems internationally."Businesses need to be concerned about configuration and patch management. Otherwise they're just low-hanging fruit," to be picked off he added. More ominously he warned of "Zero Day Exploits." "There's no fix for it," he said of a type of cyber infiltration that takes advantage of unrealized vulnerabilities, and is done to advance whatever the hacker's agenda is.

1. http://www.defensivethinking.com/