Don't Get Hacked - Get Protection!

This page shows maps generated by Zone Alarm Pro. These maps show possible attempts by hackers to gain control of my home PC. I will update the maps as a kind of "Hack Attack Gallery of Rogues." I once had a FTP server running on my home PC (not smart - I admit it) - left my PC on for a few days, and came back to discover that I had been "scanned and tagged."

Some script kiddie had detected my FTP site, and proceeded to hack my PC. Since I was using Windows 2000, I had a record of his/her actions in the Event Viewer, as well as the evidence of folders I did not create left on the hard drive. Event Viewer also showed that the script kiddie had loaded a Trojan Horse on my PC.

I wiped the PC, and read up on hackers in a great book called "Hacking Exposed"

I highly recommend this book if you are interested in finding out how hacking is done. If you have broadband access now, or are considering getting such access in the future, please be aware that you need to install at LEAST some sort of software firewall on your system. I use Zone Alarm Pro 3.0. It has a lot of nifty features, including the mapping function which takes a best guess at geographically locating the system that did a port scan on your computer.

Further protection is afforded by purchasing a Broadband router, which provides a higher level of security. I use a a model by LinkSys, but any Broadband router will probably work ok. Also recommended for reading is the "The Cuckoo's Egg."

"The Cuckoo's Egg, by Cliff Stoll - from a review on Amazon.com - "The Cuckoo's Egg seems to have inspired a whole category of books exploring the quest to capture computer criminals. Still, even several years after its initial publication and after much imitation, the book remains a good read with an engaging story line and a critical outlook, as Clifford Stoll becomes, almost unwillingly, a one-man security force trying to track down faceless criminals who've invaded the university computer lab he stewards. What first appears as a 75-cent accounting error in a computer log is eventually revealed to be a ring of industrial espionage, primarily thanks to Stoll's persistence and intellectual tenacity."

Shields Up Web Site

LinkSys - Wireless Broadband Router

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