Richard,
I have friend who has given me excellent advice on "reverse engineering" issues in the past. He tells me, the really good guys who are determined can get around most of the normal road blocks, but the average computer whiz is unlikely to get around what's currently available on the market to protect you.
My advice, read, read, read, and study for yourself what the real danger is, as overall it's probably not what you're thinking. I get attacked all the time, but most of it is just normal Internet crap that everyone deals with. There are always folks trying to use my pc for their own business. The Internet might as well be called "hijack heaven."
I monitor my traffic pretty close, and I have seen a pick up as a result of interfacing with the Mars forum, but it's nothing that I'm overly worried about. You can worry yourself sick, or you can have fun and make it a war game, as necessary.
The right attitude is to protect yourself adequately, and then if someone is good enough to get into your system, they've earned the right to look around.
Regarding the E-mail issues ... there are ways to protect yourself which are adequate and inexpensive. I've been truly impressed with my spam protection lately. It's so good that part of the time it won't let the mail I want through.
It is curious to me that anyone would care to attack you specifically with respect to the Mars blog. To me, that represents clear motive. If you have time, e-mail me what happened to you. Believe me, we can play sick 'em too.
