I guess the main thing I would say is that I am sick of seeing yet another snoop attack on our firewall, scanning the "scannee" and discovering its some dozy half-wit who has left their machine open to the net, its been comprimised and is now being used as a relay for some happy hacker.
Personally I "rely on the Linux" tables type firewall, yes its breakable (as they all are). The main thing I like is that, if you can make your machine invisible, i.e. if you can make your firewall not respond to anything, then they shouldn't be able to see you with a normal scan, therefore why should they bother trying to hack you, they will move on to the next home user who is open to the net. Rule set is simplified to outbound everything, inbound nothing, surely that should take care of radio, video .....? Really it depends, if you want to leave your machine open then.. no bank details of any form (including letters to banks and credit card co.s), no porn (least ways not the home made stuff), no nothing personal that you don't want to loose. At the end of the day your machine should be a disposable piece of equipment (otherwise what happens when the disk goes bang, or some tea-leaf decides to nick it the old fashioned way.) For personal stuff I suggest either a CD writer, or a ZIP drive, keep those letters, pictures, un-replaceables on there, and treat the rest like so much replaceable scrap iron. Be pragmatic, be careful, let the other suckers take the brunt of the kiddy hackers, if you get a pro after you, you are pretty much screwed anyway. And just don't forget, you don't want the screen saver of Jenifer Annderson, you don't want to share your files with the rest of the world, you don't want that bit of tuning software (Win 2k manages okay by itself), you definately don't want bl**dy gator (the machine wrecker), and you don't want any email attachments, unless you are EXPECTING them. (Always email back friends if you aren't expecting an attachment and you get one). This is entirely my point of view - please feel free to deride me if you wish :-) -----Original Message----- From: Marc Suxdorf [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: 16 August 2002 16:19 To: Mike Burden; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: AW: [gb-users] win2K security problems, the facts! Thanks everyone for taking the time to help. I now have many links to professional security related sites. I believe the average home user won't understand a thing explained on them. Everyone I know (besides the one guy working as an IT professional) is worried about Internet Security, but hasn't got a clue on how secure their system is and what the3y are supposed to do. Many of them already have flat rate ADSL Internet Connections at home, which they leave open 24/7 (including me). It's just soo cool to listen to free international Internet radio and have the latest world wide news pop up in front of you... But what are the risks? As scared as I am I put an old box with a Gnatbox light in front of my personal computer not allowing anything by default, neither in nor out. This causes a lot of hazzle with many web based software and media player. One friend of mine installed Agnitums free Outpost firewall, another one picked ZoneAlarm. None of them really know how to set this up, nor what can or will happen with or without a firewall. Neither do I fully understand the possible threads for a private users connected to the Internet. Especially because most private users won't be concerned about a DOS attack or forced system crashes. The main concern would be any kind of information exploits and Trojans which would exactly allow this or even overtake a system. Maybe you find the time to answer some of my more specific questions: All assumptions are based on my example out of the box W2K system, with all service packs and security updates until today installed. Most Trojans would probably more likely infect a system through an email virus (another highly important subject <g>), is that true? Can a malicious person gain full remote access to that system via planting a Trojan on it? Or copy files from it? Read files on it? Is this an easy task? How much time will someone need and what steps are involved to do any of this? (I am not looking for a detailed hack instruction <g>) Thanks again for any comments Best wishes Marc --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the digest version first unsubscribe, then e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archive of the last 1000 messages: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] This e-mail and its attachments are intended for the above named recipient(s) only and may be confidential, legally privileged and protected by law. 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