Network Security: Is Your Computer Protected
Lets start with a definition of what network security is. Network Security is in plain terms: a networks ability to protect the individual computers that are part of that network and other shared resources such as printers from out of network attacks. Basically network security protects the computer network infrastructure through polices adapted by the network administrator to protect the network and its resources from various attacks. Network security starts with authenticating any user. This means some sort of username, password and IP is checked against the network security system to make sure that person has permission to access that particular network. An IP is a unique identifying number called an address for each computer on the Internet. This protects against unauthorized users from entering the network. Once the user is authenticated, the next step is the firewall. The firewall on a computer either allows or denies a user services based on the program polices for network usage. This helps safe guard against unauthorized access from unauthorized users. It does not however safe guard against harmful things such as viruses, because it does not check for those. In order to prevent malware from entering onto the computer one needs an Intrusion Prevention System or IPS. The IPS helps to detect and in most cases can remove the malware. Some firewall services also include IPS services. Those are preferable when deciding what firewalls to get for your computer. The IPS service can also monitor the traffic and if suspicious of any activity denies access to that person through the firewall. There are also anonymous IP address protective software and downloads you can get so a hacker can’t get your IP address. And of course you can also get anti-spy ware as well. There are different types of network security attacks. The term hacker has become quite common. When there is a weakness in the network security it is easy for a hacker to attack and infiltrate a system. These attacks can result in loss of service to total crashes on ones computer. IP spoofing is when the hacker fakes their IP address so you think the information is coming from a source that you know. Sometimes the attack may take the form of tricking the computer to think that it is coming from its own address and crash. This type of attack is common on Windows operating systems. Some attackers gain access through friendly less secure networks to get to yours. This is called routing. There are other forms of hacking called man in the middle attack, session hijacking, server spoofing where they can take passwords and usernames and DNS poisoning where they falsify information. There is also password cracking where they figure out peoples passwords to access their information. Some network system safety precautions can be taken for your computer. Here are some precautions for windows users. You should never go on the Internet without a firewall and some sort of anti-virus software that is up to date. You should scan for viruses daily or have it automatically do so periodically on your computer. Don’t share any information unprotected. Disable ActiveX codes in your web browsers. Do not hide files with known file type extensions. For example, FRIENDLYFILE.TXT.exe is a common windows file. Because a hacker's computer may recognize that file also, and visa-versa your computer may recognize that file; it should not be hidden with that extension. They can send you a file like that and you will unknowingly open it. Don’t open emails that look suspicious. Macs have their own system of protection and are supposed safer; I currently use a Mac for that reason. I had my bank account hacked and don’t know how but I have my own theory about how it happened. "Nothing is One Hundred Percent Safe On The Computer" these days!!! So, try and use as much safety software as possible and run it as often as you can to protect your computer network. |
