Intrusion Protection

Are you bare naked to intrusion? Actually not you, but your computer! There are several ways for an intruder to break into your computer, for example:

• He/she has direct access to your computer (can get to it, because you left the door to your house or office unlocked)
• Through the internet

Your protection in the first case are a decent operating system and a good password. Read through the passwords section to find out about good password.

In case of an intrusion attempt through the internet, given you have a professional operating system (Windows NT/2000, Linux, Unix, etc.) good passwords are also quite a valuable protection. But it might not be enough.

Do you know?
Are you aware that your computer (network) can be accessed, once you are connected to the internet. And, do you know that several programs are available, which scan internet addresses to see if a responsive computer is connected. And once such a computer is found, tools are available to look around, gather information and if someone would want to, corrupt your system.

Are you in potential danger?
As I said you are, if you are connected to the internet. If you are connecting through a dial-up connection, your case is not as bad as if you are connected through a high speed link like DSL or cable. The reason is this. In case of a dial-up connection, you get a new internet address (IP-address) each time you connect, whereas in the high speed scenario you are connected quasi permanently and your IP address either doesn't change or quite seldom.

The IP address is like your home address. It uniquely identifies your location on the internet. Information sent to your computer (web pages, downloads, etc.) are sent to this address.

Your computer is set up to receive and sent information through the internet. It might even be set up to provide services if requested. Without going into details, there are a number of services which can be provided by your computer. Usually these should be deactivated, if not explicitly allowed by you, the user of the computer. Fact is however that in many cases they are not and you do not even know about it.

Check your status
Gibson Research Corporation is operating a web-site through which you can

• test your "nakedness", i.e. how open your machine is
• get valuable information on how to close those security holes.

if you are running a windows operating system or network. The service is called Shields Up. If you follow the link below, you will reach Gibson Research's home page. Either wait a moment or click on the "Shields-Up" banner and you are transferred to their index page. Scroll down until you find the Shields Up logo and click on it. You are greeted by Shields Up with your Logon Name if your intrusion protection is in bad shape. If you are connected through a dial-up connection, you may not want to use the utility to determine your IP address. Scroll down until you find the "Test my Shields" and "Probe My Ports" buttons. Test your shields first! After you are done the tests, you might want to read through the Gibson Research comments and tips, or come back here to see my suggestions.

What did you find?
Are the results of the test scaring you! Good and not good. Good, since you are inclined to do something about it. Not good, because I don't like to see you scared.

What can you do
You have basically two possibilities:

• Tune your system, so that your ports are closed and your computer does not advertise it's presence
• Install a software firewall

Your safest solution is to put up a firewall. However, if you are connected through dial-up, the system tuning might be enough to reduce your risk.

Tuning your system
To find information on how to tune your system, please go back to "Shields Up". Instead on running the tests scroll down further to read the explanations, in particular No. 5, Network Bondage (Click here to reach "Shields Up"). If you find this confusing and are not sure if you want to venture following the tip, contact me.

A Software Firewall!??
A software fire wall basically is a peace of software, that monitors the communication channels of your computer. It denies programs and services running on your computer to access the internet if not explicit allowed.

It monitors your ports and blocks any communication attempt from the Internet, again, if not explicitly allowed. This way you can manage to hide you machine completely.

You actually achieve two things: First, if your computer happens to be infected by Trojan Horses (software that reports activities to "home base") their activities will be blocked. Second, any attempt to connect to your computer through the Internet is blocked, if you do not explicitly allow it!

This does not mean that you cannot access the Internet any more. It will be business as usual for you, once the firewall is configured.

ZoneLab Firewalls
An excellent (may be the best) firewall called ZoneAlarm is available from ZoneLabs. It comes free of charge for private use.

Businesses can get firewall protection for their computers and/or distributed network (virtual private network VPN), through ZoneAlarm Pro, available from ZoneLabs as well.

Don't compromise the security of your computer. Get yourself protection from ZoneLabs here.

Contact me for help and security consultation, if you are unsure or have difficulties. I am there to help.

Warning
You may already deploying a firewall. Run Shields-Up to find out if it is doing the job you think its doing:

Some firewalls leave some important ports open. Shields up does not test all the 65536 ports of your machine!

Other threads are that your firewall is actually leaking out. This means that it allows programs to "report home" without your permission!

Within the Shields-Up site of Gibson Research Corporation, you find a discussion on firewalls (explanation 7 if you scroll down below the "Probe" buttons). If you follow the explanation pages through, including "Leak-Test", you will see for instance that Norton Personal Firewall has a systematic weakness!

Use Leak-Test to test your shields from the inside.

Dedicated Firewalls
Separate firewall "appliances" are available as well. Their cost start at about $400 (US). it really depends on your security requirements and on how exposed you are.

If you have questions or want consultation
If you have questions or want consultation please contact me.