Security and what you should do
Anyone who uses a computer and goes online (whether through dial-up or broadband, or other) has a responsibility to
take an interest in the security of their system(s). There are many things to consider but the basics are...
- Virus protection. Have a virus checker application on your machine. There's really no excuse as a very good app
is available free of charge. AVG by Grisoft.
- A firewall. This keeps an eye on what can access your machine and what on your machine can access the internet.
Again there is no excuse for failure to have one of these on your machine. Zonealarm
from Zonelabs is fine.
Other items of interest
IPcop
This is an opensource project that has built a very good firewall for linux based machines. The idea is that you
take an old PC with Limux running on it and then install this software. Great tools and reporting make it a serious
option for the professional amateur, or the small business with some skill.
Check the site: "http://www.ipcop.org
Samspade
A site that can help you track down the perpetrator of an attack using IP address and other info.
Check the site: "http://www.samspade.org"
Symbiot
This is a tool that has an opensource version. It will allow full monitoring of your systems and even help you
track down the attacker.
Check the site: "http://www.symbiot.com"