PC Co-Pilots, LLC – Spring 2009 | Newsletter – Security Woes…
You hear about hackers in the news more and more these days but it doesn’t become real until they strike close to home. Recently, a local computer company had their web servers compromised by hackers and that resulted in many of their clients’ websites being temporarily taken offline. The hackers even went so far as to put notes where the websites should have been, claiming credit for the hack. As the day went on and people went to these websites, we started getting calls. People wanted to know if thier businesses might be at risk and how they could stop this from happening. So, we thought it might be a good time to explain a little about what hacking is and who might be at risk.
Hacker – The term “hacker” has come to be a little ambiguous. To most of us computer geeks, a hacker is just someone who is a computer enthusiast. People who enjoy learning new things about computers and programming languages often call themselves hackers. Because of public perception of the hacker community, the term “cracker” was coined back in the ’80′s to differentiate “hackers” from people who gain unauthorized access to computer systems for malicious ends. There’s several reasons as to why these people do what they do, but they tend to fall into one of four categories.
We’ll label these different types of hackers as Thief, Fame-Seeker, Terrorist, and Vigilante.
* The Thief is in it for the money. They are one of the most dangerous types of hackers out there because they are actively obtain data to abuse later. They steal business and personal information, such as social security numbers, credit card numbers, bank codes, contact lists, client databases, and industry secrets. These types of hackers are a leading cause of identity theft in our day and age. They are the driving force behind most viruses and malware, which can turn your home computer into “zombies” that they use to further their reach into cyber space.
* The Fame-Seeker is the juvenile delinquent of the group. They’re usually composed of a younger crowd of hackers, but they can be just as harmful as the Thief. This group will hack into servers and networks in order to deface websites with social or political commentary, erotica, or just a brand to show that they were the ones to pull off the hack. They are the graffiti artists of the Internet and can cause massive damage to a business’s or individual’s reputation. Because of the fame-seeker’s motives, home users and low-traffic websites are usually not targetted. Watch out though if your website’s traffic dramatically increases! You may be a future target if you suddenly gain more name recognition in the news or online!
* The Terrorist is the grand-father of the group. They’re motives aren’t as clear as the Thief or the Fame-Seeker but are nevertheless as harmful. These groups of hackers are usually following some sort of political agenda. They are the ones who are spying on high profile networks, ranging from large corporations to government systems. They spread propaganda and subversion to mass media channels to create upheaval. The most unnerving fact about this group of hackers is that they usually have government backing of some sort, usually invisibly through the security sector of their government. Most people probably won’t directly interact with this type of hacker, but you’ll want to make sure your computers and network is secure from their worms and trojans, which could add your system to their growing botnet!
* The Vigilante is usually considered the “good hacker”. They are the security experts who drive companies to patch exploits in their software and secure holes to their networks. Generally, the Vigilante will hack into computer systems to see what security flaws are apparent, then contact the company about their findings. Most Vigilantes don’t leave it at that though. They do care about security, but will release the exploits they found to the general public if not fixed by the company in a timely manner.
Now that you have a good idea of what hacking is, we wanted to give you some basic advice on protecting against it.
The following will help to protect your computer systems:
* Regularly reset your passwords and implement password policies which require long, complex passwords. Go here <http://pccopilots.com-password strength; if you want to test the strength of your password.
* Allow access to your computer systems only to authorized contractors and employees. Remove access immediately if the user’s status changes.
* Secure your wireless connection! Don’t use the default settings that your wireless equipment come with. Change your SSID wireless name and encrypt it by using either WPA, WEP, or MAC address filtering.
* Patch those operating system security holes! When using Windows, it is as simple as running Windows Updates every couple of weeks to ensure that you install the most recent critical updates from Microsoft’s website.
* Block access to your computer at its source! Most security risks come from the Internet, so use a firewall to protect yourself from Internet threats. If you’re a home user, you should be secure by using a software-based firewall, but a business should rely more on a hardware firewall for added protection and functionality.
* Keep an up-to-date anti-virus and anti-malware solution installed on all of your computers and run scheduled scans on all of your systems.
If you’re unsure about your computer and network security, feel free to give us a call. We would be glad to help!
________________________________
Q&A
“I have Norton Internet Security, but I’m still getting viruses and my computer is SLOW! What can I do?”
For those of you who use Norton Internet Security and actually like it, you’re one of the lucky ones. For the majority of clients we deal with, Norton Internet Security (or McAfee Internet Security for that matter) has caused quite a few more problems than the program claims to solve. The reason that Norton Internet Security causes issues for so many people is because the program was built with the home user in mind. If you use any sort of file or printer sharing between two or more computers either at home or at your office, then Norton Internet Security’s firewall will throw you for a loop.
Norton’s virus protection is also sub par when compared to some other options out in the market. Alternatives, such as Avira, Kaspersky, Bit Defender, and even AVG, rank higher in most comparison tests with Norton or McAfee products. Norton Internet Security’s footprint is also a bit larger than most of the alternatives, meaning that it usually takes up more of your computer’s resources after installed compared to the others. This can lead to some major frustration when your computer suddenly becomes sluggish after installing Norton.
Avira Antivirus This isn’t only a Norton bash article. I do recommend some of Symantec’s corporate products to most of my business clients. The point I’m trying to convey here is that, when choosing your virus & malware protection for your PC, consult with a computer professional before making your choice. Depending on if you’re an office workgroup, large network, single home PC, or gaming PC, one option is usually recommended over the others. If you’re looking to go ahead and try out a new security program, then I’d recommend trying Avira Free AntiVir Edition, found here. Make sure to not have more than one antivirus program installed at a time though as some serious performance problems can arise by having two or more installed!
Remember that if you have any questions you’d like answered, just send them to questions@pccopilots.com . We will try to cover as many as we can in upcoming newsletters.
