The problem is Bell South, like other ISP's are in a catch 22. The real issue here is that hackers are getting more vicious in their attacks and there are not enough security people to weed them out, prosecute them and feed them to the sharks.
If you do not want your computer to catch a virus, worm, adware, get hacked, whatever there is only one solution.
Do not turn it on.
Unfortunately, you are absolutely correct about this.