What sort of damage could someone do if all they had was your IP address?

Question

Can they read your emails or get to your files that are stored on your computer?

Answer 1

Short answer, No.

Slightly longer answer: Just make sure if you're running a home network to properly set permissions for whatever you want or don't want to share on your network. Be careful what you download and install on your system. Run a firewall.

You're IP address is pretty much available when you connect to the 'internets'. Unless you're going through a proxy or run something like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tor_(anonym...

But really don't sweat it. It's not a big deal. Chances are you have a dynamic IP address anyway that will change in a day or two.

Answer 2

I'm not a hacker but I've downlowded port and IP scanners that you could use to scan someones computer and from it you can tell what Operating system they use and if you had a certain setting on your windows xp set wrong then it could allow a hacker to connect to your computer and view and alter files and programs such as videos,pics , letters.    I got this program from an underground website that was posted on a message board in yahoo . It was free , I scanned my own computer from a computer at work and it showed me some ports that were open on my computer so I closed them and made my computer more secure