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Internet security and your PC |
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originally developed by Dorothy L. Nixon, CUNY, Queens College |
Internet dangers to your machine:
- Home Hackers article from US News and World Report, October 4, 1999
- The Enemy Within from PC Magazine, Novvember 29, 1999
- Is Your PC a Hacker Tool? How to Test Security from the Los Angeles Times, Monday, February 14, 2000
- Shields Up! at Gibson Research Corporation. See especially Windows Networking 101. See also The Escalating Threat of Internet Denial of Service and Why Windows XP Will Be the Denial of Service Exploitation Tool of Choice for Internet Hackers Everywhere
- Has your PC been hijacked? at ZDNet
- Site on Identity theft and how to avoid it, on the Federal Trade Commission site. General privacy advice, not just computer-related.
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Helpful info about Personal Computers (PC's):
- PC911 - questions and answers about Windows PC's
- PC Help at NorthWest Internet
- CNET - great source of easy-to-read technical information of all kinds.
- The Navas Group - cable, DSL, and modem optimization and security (irrelevant if you just have a dial-up connection to your Internet provider).
How to secure your machine against intruders:
- Shields Up! at Gibson Research Corporation. Easy-to-read step-by-step guide.
- Unsafa at high speed from PC World, January 6, 2000. Mainly for people with cable or DSL connections, but much advice useful for people with dialup connections too.
- Security Focus
- Windows OOB Bug at WinFiles -- how to protect your machine against the relatively minor hazard of being "nuked."
- The PatchWork utility, available from the Center for Internet Security. Checks whether a machine with Windows NT has certain crucial security patches. (But does not check for the presence of ALL needed security patches. For more information, see PatchWork on Steve Gibson's site. See also a relevant FBI Press Release.)
- Security info on Attrition.org
Anti-virus software:
- InoculateIT Personal Edition from Computer Associates - free, from a company here on Long Island.
- Virus Scan from McAfee - the best-known provider of anti-virus software. Software should be updated regularly at their Anti-Virus center.
- Norton Anti-Virus from Symantec. See also their Virus Research Center for up-to-date info about viruses (and software updates).
- Free : a new virus scanner from http://www.grisoft.com
About Trojan horses:
- Software to detect and remove Trojan horses: The Cleaner from MooSoft
Firewall software for PC's:
- ZoneAlarm from Zone Labs -- free but good for an ordinary home PC. Received the highest recommendation from Steve Gibson.
- Conseal PC Firewall -- see their FAQ
- McAfee.com Personal Firewall (MPF)
- Sygate personal firewall from Sygate Technologies - see their User Guide
- Norton Internet Security from Symantec
- BlackICE Defender from Network Ice Corp - see also Network Ice advICE for general security info
- "Evil port monitors" -- Steve Gibson on how to recognize a poor-quality "firewall"
Interpretation of firewall data:
- FAQ: Firewall Forensics (What am I seeing?) by Robert Graham (Note: the recommended commands at various places in the document will work only on Unix systems, but the port numbers are valid for PC's too.)
- Firewall Log Interpreter from Robert Graham
- Online database at the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) -- a place to look up IP addresses
- A Comprehensive Listing of Port Numbers at Information Sciences Institute
- For Further Reading at Gibson Research Corporation.
Cookie Management:
Encryption:
- See Encryption products and vendors on my Cryptography links page
Proxies (web content filtering):
- WebWasher
- Proxomitron by Scott Lemmon
Internet tools:
- Network Tracer at PC help
- Sam Spade
- Network Tools
- Time and clock tools for Windows 95/98 and Windows NT/2000 at WinFiles
- Center for Internet Security
- SANS (System Administration, Networking, and Security) Institute
- CERT
- Dave Dittrich
- Computer Security Group (University of Cambridge, UK)
- Packet Storm, a vast online library of computer security info.
- Aviel D. Rubin (teaches at NYU)
- See also Cryptography research on my Cryptography links page
- See also Security analysis on my Formal methods links page.
Internet programming info:
Miscellaneous:
- Free E-mail client: Eudora. It is a good idea to use SOME E-mail program other than Microsoft Outlook, given the latter's virus-prone scripting capability.
- Free FTP client without ads: Leech FTP by Jan Debis
- Practically Networked by Tim Higgins -- about LAN's (local area networks, such as the networks connecting the machines within our on-campus labs).
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