I found this recent article about hack attacks:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/20714.html

I now have my Linux box (Red Hat 6.2 plus misc updates) on a DSL
line behind a Cisco 678.

What protections do I need to have in place to have a reasonable
chance of avoiding getting hacked?

The system is not on the net 24/7; it's only connected when I'm
surfing the web.

With this box I don't intend to have any external services available.
I guess that means I don't need an ftp daemon or an http daemon.  Are
there other services I could/should turn off?

Is there a web page somewhere that would tell me how to secure this
system?

Thanks.

dsc