On Sat, 23 Mar 2002 17:05:32 -0800 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tivo) wrote: > >Pismo 400, 384RAM -- What's up with Firewalls these days? What are folks >using and what are your comments about these products? > > This depends...
Are you running Classic? Turn off guest file sharing, certainly, and file sharing entirely if you don't need it, and make sure your owners password is a secure one (not a word, a mixture of letters and numbers) and go an. There's little a hacker can do to you if you're running the Classic Mac OS. If you're running OSX, turn off all services you don't need, and use OSX'es built in securty mechanisms. Out of the box, OSX is pretty tight. Keep up on Software Update, though, Apple's constantly rolling security related patches into it. Everyone with a firewall is going to get hits all the time...they're port scanner hits almost 99% of the time, machines looking to see what services you may be running. The classic mac only runs Web sharing and file sharing, unless you're doing something else, like running a FTP server or something, and even in that case most of them have to be consiously made to be insecure. Even if the hackers do find your machine, they can't do anything to it, generally. On a Classic OS Mac, firewalls are a waste of money, imo. On OSX, the built-in mechanisms are quite adequate. As it is a Unix system you *can* make OSX as insecure as an abandoned Beemer, left running, doors open, on the West Side highway up in the Bronx ;-), but you'll have to work on it. The most basic rules of computer security: 1)If the bad guys can run their programs on your machine, it's not yours anymore. 2)If the bad guys can convince *you* to run their programs on your machine, it's not yours anymore. 3)If the bad guys can physically touch your machine, it's not yours anymore. That's it. Everything in the entire field of computer security can be boiled down to those three rules. The rest is details, left as an excersize for the class to work out ;-) Classic Mac OS does not have any remote access built into it other than file sharing. The only way for a hacker to run a program on your machine would be to place something in your startup items folder. Make sure that your system folder isn't shared, and they can't do a thing. Convincing you to run their programs is easier...so you have to be vigilant about what you're running on a computer. If they can touch your machine, for most home users, that means they've broken in to your house. I find large dogs to be a wonderful deterrent to that, and excellent bed-warmers on cold winter nights, to boot. 99.999% of all hacker breakins are because people have failed to keep up on patches and updates for their software, and are too lazy to turn off (or worse, don't even *know* about) services they're running. Bruce Johnson College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | RoadTools $30 PodiumPad available at Apple retail stores, $20 Traveler CoolPad at Staples. Both in white for iBooks at <http://roadtools.com>. Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
