Hi all

My mates and I were having a chat about computers in the pub, when one of them piped up that it was possible to hack into your PC while it is turned off. I say it's not possible. Here's the conversation:

Me: "It's not possible"

Mate "Yes it is, all the hacker has to do is to get the PC to turn on remotely"

Me "Yes, if it is turned on, I suppose Hackers could probably do anything these days, but not whilst the machine is off"

Mate "Yes, all he has to do is to tell the modem or LAN to wake up the computer (via the BIOS). Then he has access to your machine"

Me "Yes but surely, you would already have to have the BIOS set to wake up for LAN or Modem"

Mate "No, the hacker will wait until you rmachine is switched on by you. Then he gains access to your BIOS via the Live update facility. When he is in the BIOS, he changes the LAN or Modem wake up feature to 'ON'. Then when your machine is turned off at night, he justs sends a command to the LAN or Modem to wake up the PC"

Me "and how would he hack the BIOS while you are using the PC without you noticing?"

We went on arguing for hours, and decided on a £50 bet. I say it's NOT possible to do all this. while I realise that Hackers are becoming far more sophisticated, this seems a little bit far fetched.

What do you guys think?