"Remember that a rootkit is not designed to help an intruder gain access to a system. A rootkit is designed to make the intruders feel at home and allow them work silently on your system without being disturbed." In other words a rootkit is the physical equivalent of a burglar finishing off your attic space so he has a snug, obscure place from which to continue burglarizing you. O'Reilly Network: Understanding Rootkits

If you are trying to stop the burglar before he crawls in the window, then tools like Snort & Dragon might help the cause. Too bad there isn't the rottweiler or doberman equivalent in the computer world. It would be supremely satisfying to know that not only did you prevent your system from being hacked, but the dork on the other end left with a chunk of butt missing. Ditto with all of this spam I've been getting. I don't want to shuffle it into other folders or block it before it reaches my email program, I want the email to return-to-sender and they pay for return postage (metaphorically speaking). If a get-rich idiot spammer ends up having to shell out thousands of dollars and isn't making enough to offset the costs then their spam attempts will surely start abating.

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