As a small business owner, you may believe that hackers have no use for your small network. Think again! Understanding what these hackers are truly after will help you to understand why your network is at risk.

Our featured guest on Small Business Trends Radio is Thomas Raef, founder of e-Based Security. Raef explains why these cyber criminals want control of your system and the signs you should be aware of to spot whether or not your system has been captured.

Among the points in the broadcast are:

What hackers want. A hacker's ultimate goal is to gain control of your system and possess the ability to be able to perform their desired tasks in stealth mode.

Why? The bottom line is money. They earn their income by sending spam from your computer which conceals their identity and they record keystrokes to acquire passwords and credit card numbers.

What do they do with the information? Brace yourself. The information that is gained by controlling your system is likely to be sold. The hackers will post credit card numbers for free. Others use these numbers, verify their authenticity, and comment. Once this is done, the hacker's value increases as the information he is selling is proved legitimate.

Why isn't the government acting? Unfortunately, even though many of these hackers are in the United States, many of the sites used to promote their offerings are based offshore. Our laws simply do not apply to them; nor do these countries wish to cooperate.

What are the signs? Be sure to listen to the full audio podcast. In it, Raef provides one solution to discovering whether or not your system has been captured.

Today's Trend: In addition to the above points, please stay tuned at the end of the program to the Today's Trend segment. The Today's Trend for this episode is: Pet Industry Trends in 2007. Today's Trend examines the recent trends and explosive growth in pet industry related products and services such as pet photography, grooming, luxury items and pet friendly environments. Be sure to also read a full list of these recent trends by viewing Laura Bennett's post the Small Business Trends Web site: Pet Industry Trends for 2007.

About Thomas Raef
Raef started working in the PC industry back in 1983. He became self-employed in 1984 catering to the IT needs of small businesses in the Chicago area. As the market evolved so did his skills and his service offerings. For the past 8 years his primary focus has been on system security with an eye on small businesses.

Raef founded e-Based Security in 2003 and began creating The Box - a remotely managed security appliance that addresses all the needs of small businesses and home networks.

Listen to the broadcast or read more here.