I once had an aunt who delighted in relaying bad news. Nothing cheered her more than calling to tell us of a death in the family, a prolonged sickness or the financial problems of some relative.

Maybe some of her DNA is kicking in today. I'm here to tell you that no matter how bad things seem now, they're going to get much worse. Sure, you're worn out from dealing with "phisher" scams, spam e-mail, viruses, spyware and home network problems. But over the next year or so, it's likely these will become the good old days of computing.

There are dozens of new threats on the horizon. I'll touch on just a few.

> Spam: Not only will you continue to get junk e-mails, it's likely your computer will also be sending spam out in your name. That should make a lot of friends for you. And the cops may want to talk to you, too, since it's possible that your PC will be sending out pornographic e-mail.

This has already started and should get worse over time. Spammers are learning to capture remote computers and turn them into secret spam machines. The fact that remotely controlled computers aren't owned by the spammers makes it harder for ISPs and the police to find them.

> Solution: Make sure you have both a good firewall to keep hackers out, and, since many of these efforts to take over your computer come in the form of custom-made viruses, keep your anti-virus program up to date.

> Pharming: Most of you have figured out that all those e-mails that seemed to be telling you to fix up your eBay account, or check in at the Citibank Web page, are scams designed to separate you and your money. That e-mail is fake, and so is the Web site that it wants you to visit. Those are phishing attacks.

Well, it's time to learn a new word. It's "pharming." Unlike phishing attacks that try to con you into believing the e-mail's message, you don't have to be gullible to become a victim of a pharming attack.

Pharming --- which mostly exists now in the worries of security experts --- directs you to fake Web pages that harvest your information, even when you type in the right address. It takes advantage of how the Internet's address system works. It's possible for hackers to mess with what is called the domain name system so that, when you correctly type in an address, you're sent to a page created by the crooks.

You can do everything right and still end up at a fake Web site.

> Solution: Be cautious about the information you give about yourself while online. If you have any doubt about the legitimacy of the Web site, just don't use it. Make sure your Web browser is kept up to date since, as this threat grows from unlikely to possible, the folks who create the browsers will update them to help foil these attacks.

And don't let pharming make you forget the rule for dealing with phishing attacks: Do not, ever, follow the links in what seems to be a commercial e-mail. If you want to go there, type the address in yourself.

> Cellphones: My wife has one of those high-tech Palm computers with a phone built in. It's great. But now that even lesser telephones are capable of containing a lot of data, hackers are targeting cellphones.

The first viruses and hacker attacks have already occurred. But we are just seeing the beginning of troubles here.

As cellphones contain more and more data, they've become bigger targets. And with built-in Internet connections, they're easier to hack.

> Solution: With any luck, much of this work will be done by your provider. But when is the last time you've been lucky with technology? My guess is that the day is coming when you will have to spend time and money to protect your telephone against risks.

> The Macintosh: The neat thing about a Mac has been that it has seemed virtually immune to viruses, spyware and hacking. That's made Macs more popular, since all of us are tired of worrying about this stuff.

The Mac is becoming more popular with hackers, too. Companies such as Norton are beginning to see more security threats that affect the Mac. Ironically, the success of the iPod and Mac Mini have raised the visibility of the Macintosh platform high enough that it's become a more attractive target for the bad guys.

Now that I've delivered the bad news, let me tell you the really bad news.

The things I've discussed are trends that are either happening right now, or that are at least understood. The worst threats of the next year or so will be ones that the technology experts haven't discovered yet. We'll find out about those problems the hard way.

tecbud@ajc.com