Anatomy of a Cracker
It's crackers, not hackers. A cracker is a criminal who attempts to gain criminal access to others' accounts, software, computers and networks.
A hacker is an individual who "hacks" or modifies anything to suit his own needs. Most of us are hackers of some sort. In fact we could just as well call the scratch and bash forum the hackers forum. Unfortunately, it's become all too common to confuse the two.
88 - I suspect the cracker wasn't trying to get into the-gauge as much as getting into the server. Either they are after the challenge of cracking an internet server, or they are hoping to rip off an e-commerce site and defraud its' customers. There are typically 30 or 40 or more accounts (sites) on one server that a typical host provides. There are 51 accounts on my site providers server right now. Very unlikely they had their sites on us.
If they crack in to get their jollies, they may try to detroy data, though
They also may just do something they think is funny like replace your front page with some sort of political statement or porn. They usually only do either to gov sites and large, famouse com sites, like yahoo.
Crackers don't typically deal with viruses. Once they get in, they attempt to get control of the system. Normally, only the root account (aka superuser, wheel, or admin), has access to all files. They try to get root access, then install programs that allow them to do what they want and hide the fact that the system has been compromised. That would be a sucessful crack. It may be alarming when we find a cracker has been in, but finding him means the crack was unsuccessful.
The small percentage of MS windows based internet servers are prone to virus attack. Most are Unices (forms of Unix or Linux), and not prone to virus attack. Viruses are meant to self propagate and do not need the medeling hands of a cracker to install them.
You shouldn't get a virus viewing anything on the web, but your system can come under attack of hostile java or other active content. If you disable active content, you will be safer, but your internet experiance may not be very fun anymore. 90% of the naughty active content installs marketing software to tell marketeers where you surf, what you might buy from them. This can be removed by installing and running adaware:
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/
~OR~
http://download.com.com/3000-2094-10045910.html
I run this program on all MS windows machines at home and work periodically or if there is any odd behavior.
You might be able to protect yourself from hostile activities by running an anti-virus package that has protection for java and active x. Myself, I just don't worry about it on a home machine. At work I use McAfee Corp. for such protection.
Warped, but consistant.