Inderjeet S Sodhi
Nitin entered his
cousin sister’s room and noticed her working on the computer. He was visiting
them to spend a few days after exams. His presence was acknowledged and greeted
by Natasha with a smile and a short “hi!”. Realizing the possible importance of
her task, he quietly sat down on the bed beside the computer without disturbing
her. After a few seconds of silence, he asked, “Sis, have you put the computer
to some other task also?”. Surprised and worried at the same time, she replied
in negative. However everyone in the family knew that Nitin, a class IX student
was a sort of computer “geek”, much ahead of others not only of his age-group
but even the older generation. This prompted her to enquire, “Why did you ask?”.
“Well, something is wrong with your computer.”, he was quick in responding.
Seeing his confidence, she asked him for details. He told her that her HDD LED
was blinking continuously, in fact almost “always on” and her cursor was often
changing to the hourglass one. She quickly closed her work and allowed him to
inspect the system. It was high-end computer on Windows Millennium installed
with a recently installed net connection via cable. In a few minutes, he showed
her on the screen, 14 users connected to her system - some of them copying
files to their systems. These mostly were MP3 and Video files but two of them
were copying her personal files from the default “My Documents” Folder.
Horrified, she quickly shutdown the computer and requested him for help.
The names here have been changed but the incident happened in
real. Not everyone is as lucky to have a geek cousin. The demand for stable
Internet connections and higher bandwidth has led to the enormous success of
the so-called Cable-Net. Actually Cable net in India is basically an extended
LAN over Cat5 cable, and not what technically is Internet over (co-axial)
cable. Decreasing costs of networking equipment has further made it possible
for such services to be made available at cheap rates. These connections are
really stable and bandwidth of upto 10 MB (100 MB in some cases) is possible
over the same cable. Bandwidth can be adjusted as per the requirement of the
individual connection without any changes to hardware. On the down side, this
however also opens doors to security risks that are usually prevalent in the
corporate world. Whatever be the reason, Devils’ minds now have wider
accessibility to try “new” things.
But is it really so unsafe? In one word, No. Compare a computer
system to a house. You get a new house constructed, get fixtures and fitting
installed as per your own liking and then buy furniture and upholstery to your
own taste. Similarly, you buy a computer to your own budget, have extra things
like TV tuner and 3D game cards plugged in, get desired accessories and then
get software loaded to your own specific needs. Almost everything is same
except probably two things. When you get the house constructed or buy one, you
check for the safety and security measures. It is made sure that all windows
have grills, outer walls have barbed wire and pieces of broken glass fixed on
them. Despite all this checking, you never leave your home without locking it.
In case of your computer, however, these two things are seldom taken care of.
On the contrary, people leave their computers on, with instant messengers
running, so that family members and friends can buzz them whenever they get
online. If the system is secured, it does not matter even if you leave it on
all the time. But otherwise, it may become a cause of shock, depression or even
embarrassment in some cases.
After all software is loaded, one
needs to ensure that all updates and “patches” have been installed. Hackers and
viruses use this ignorance as a platform. Once a security flaw is publicized,
malicious people start using the flaw for their own goals. To make these
ineffective, updates are required. Most vendors provide these updates for free.
Most of us update their antivirus data files almost everyday but seldom update
the core files. Antivirus software can help in identifying the virus after
it has arrived in your computer but updates can plug the “holes” preventing
these viruses land on your computer. For example, a notorious search engine
used one of the flaws of Internet Explorer to download their files without
letting the user know. When users opened the malicious webpage, a file was
downloaded and the default search page was repeatedly set to its own webpage.
Antivirus programs soon started identifying the downloaded file as a Trojan and
deleted the same if configured to do so. If Internet Explorer is patched, the
files won’t get downloaded at all.
In case of
Intrusion also, it is possible to “barb-wire” your computer. By installing a
firewall, about two thirds of risks can be reduced. A firewall acts as a
gatekeeper, allowing only permitted or outbound connections. Imagine it to be a
strong and high stone wall with continually burning fire at the top. Intruders
cannot access your computer from outside without permission. However, care
should be taken while configuring the firewall. Too rigid rules can hamper
normal activity while too loose ones can allow others to access the resources.
Besides these, file and print sharing should not be allowed on stand alone
systems. If there is an internal network that uses file and print sharing, then
File and Print Sharing binding should not be enabled on the particular network
card to which the ISP is connected. At the time of setting up the network,
there should be a unique domain or workgroup assigned to the internal network.
Also, NETBEUI should be disabled for that card. This will also prevent your
computer to send unnecessary traffic searching for port 137. Some free
firewalls for personal use are(in random order):
ZoneAlarm by ZoneLabs (www.zonelabs.com)
Kerio Personal Firewall
(www.kerio.com)
Sygate Personal Firewall
(http://smb.sygate.com)
Norton Personal Firewall (http://www.symantec.com)
Outpost (www.agnitum.com)
Look’n Stop Lite (www.soft4ever.com)
The ISPs should also act in a responsible way and make their
customers aware of security risks and by helping them overcome these. With
proper attention to security aspects and a few easy-to-follow measures, one can
enjoy the unlimited options of broadband Internet revolution.