An easy to understand guide on computer security in the information age. This how to guide will give pointers on making your pc more secure.

At least once a day there is a report on the television about a suspected hacker attack. Who are these people and why do they do this? The first question is a complicated one; they can be adults to that ten year old down the street. Why they do it is a bit easier they do it because they know something about computers that you do not. They do it for the thrill of doing it.

If we were to actually examine what a hacker is they could be classified as a person that maliciously breaks into someone else computer. However this is a misconception on the part of media. In the hacker community a hacker is a person that is exceptionally good with computers and strive to learn everything they can about them. Crackers are the ones that “crack” into others computers with the intent to cause harm. Then there is the case of the “white hat” and “black hat” hackers, the first being the good guys and the later the bad guys. You will usually hear white hat hacker in reference to a person that is paid by a company to break into the company’s computers to test the security.

There are other computer users out there that break the law these include your warez dealers, phreakers, crackers and script kiddies. I touched briefly on crackers earlier but now I will discuss them in a bit more detail.

Crackers not only illegally break into your computer by cracking your password but they are also the ones that crack serial codes on software such as Microsoft Office 2003 or any other program they want to use for free. Crackers are experts at being anonymous on the net and understand the principals of reverse engineering. Reverse engineering is the process of taking a completed piece of software and breaking it down to the code from which it was programmed. Usually this is done in a programming language or with a debugging program. This is what allows the cracker to get the serial keys and other items from the program.

Warez dealers are those people that are below the cracker; they are the scum that sell cracked programs for five dollars. Sometimes they open up websites were people can leech programs from them. To leech a program is cracker/hacker for downloading it. A lot of warez on the net contain viruses and trojans so that the cracker can get access to your system. This allows them to look through your files for bank information or other items of interest. Also this allows them to get software on your personal computer for them to crack and distribute through the warez dealers.

Phreakers are a dying breed of hackers. With the Internet moving to high-speed connections phone phreakers are less common. In the days of 28.8-baud modems they were the kings. They would set up programs called war dialers. These programs would dial a series of numbers looking for a modem connection. Once the connection was found the phreakers would either try to crack into it or they would pass it on to their cracker friends. This information was shared through bulletin boards or bbs as they were known.

Script kiddies are becoming more rampant everyday. A script kiddie refers to a person that is unable to code (program), so they search the net for all the elite hacking tools written by others. Script kiddies are responsible for ninety-nine percent of the denial of service (DoS) attacks. Denial of service attacks is when a person uses their computer to bombard your computer with many requests, usually in the form of pings. This causes your computer to lag to the point it shuts down or worse.

With all these malicious people out there is it any wonder why there are some many computer attacks daily? How can you protect yourself from these people? There are many ways to do this. You could use stronger passwords, learn to trace the hackers, use a firewall, load a virus protection software, have multiple email accounts, surf the net with a proxy server, limit the information you give out in a chat room, and most importantly learn how to test your system for vulnerabilities.

By using a stronger password I am suggesting that you do not use birthdays, anniversaries, phone numbers, social security numbers, or common words as your password. A good password cracker can break all of them in less then two hours. If you want to increase the amount of time it takes a hacker to break your password mix up and lower case letters. This will up the time to about eight hours. For more security, use upper and lower-case letters along with a number. Now the hacker will have to spend at least a week to crack the password. If you want the ultimate security use uppercase, lowercase, number, an alphanumerical symbol, and eight characters. The password now will take the hacker at least three months to crack it, by that time you should have changed to a new password.

The average recommendation is to change your password every sixty to ninety days. A great example of a strong password would be dr.gons#1. Notice that I have changed the a for . and added a # and 1 to the mix. Another piece about passwords no genuine person will ever ask you for your password. Any system administrator will have access to your account via some type of user manager. They can change your password as needed.

Now that we have learned how to secure our computers and accounts on the internet with strong passwords we will move on to another way to fortify our personal computer. I am talking about virus scanners.

You may be wondering, what is a virus? Well a virus works the same in a computer as it does a human. A virus makes your computer sick. The sickness varies. For instance there are viruses that completely destroy your computer and all it’s files.

A common virus is called a Trojan. This virus is transferred in warez and some freeware downloads. A Trojan allows a cracker entry into your computer via a backdoor in the program you downloaded. The Trojan gets its name from the wooden horse ploy that caused the downfall of Troy.

There are also viruses that steal personal information. These are an advanced form of a virus called worms. Worms are a virus that can replicate. Any virus that attacks email is a worm.

These are just a few of the viruses out there. If you want to protect your computer from these it is highly recommended that you install a personal virus scanner. I know most of the Internet providers out there provide virus protection at their level, but what good does that do you if you download the virus in a program? There are many virus programs out there I suggest using each one till you find one you like. The only recommendation I have is ensure the program is updated regularly as viruses are created daily.

For those looking to spend little money but want a great virus program there is one called AVG that I use on my computer. You can do a search on Google to find it. The program is updated as a new virus arrives on the scene. Ensure that you run a virus scan daily or at the very least weekly.

Another way to keep viruses and hackers at bay is to add a firewall to your system. Again most internet providers tell you they are doing this at their level, but once more why leave the security of your computer in someone else hand? Firewalls are used to block incoming connections, this prevents hackers and worms that obtain your Internet protocol (ip) address from accessing your computer by blocking vulnerable ports. Every function you do on the Internet has its own communication port. Blocking these from hackers will save you a lot of trouble. It is recommended that you rotate firewalls as often as you change your password to vary the protection provided. There are some good free ones out there; currently I am using sygate personal firewall. This program is free to download and register.

When looking for a firewall do not download one that is for one or two specific types of viruses as these are usually Trojan programs. Be sure to get one that protects against all incoming attacks. Keep a log of all the people that try to access your computer. If the same ones keep appearing trace it to the source so that you can complain to the Internet provider of the person. I will discuss tracing techniques next.

Tracing a cracker can be a good thing and a bad thing. Always make sure you trace them hours after they hit your firewall. If you do it immediately this will show that you are online and will only encourage them to mess with you. There is software out there called Neotrace that will allow you to track a hacker, but I prefer the good old DOS prompt.

To get to the DOS prompt on your computer click Start and Select run and type cmd on Windows XP. At the prompt type in tracert and 127.0.0.1. Tracert stands for trace route. This program built into DOS will go through all the hubs on the Internet that separates you from the target. In the end it will give you the targets Internet service provided (ISP) and their host name. You will need to report the hostname to the ISP. Search the net for a more complete guide on the workings of tracert.

We all get that junk mail in our inboxes. This mail is called spam and is usually caused by providing your email address in a form on a web page. Certain pages sell this information to the highest bidder so that you can be bombarded with addresses. The easiest way to avoid spam is to have two email accounts. One account is the one you use to sign up for anything on the net, this one is the one that will be spammed. The other account is one you only give to friends and family. This email address should remain spam free so long as none of your contacts enter it in a form to send you something.

Chat rooms on the net pose an interesting and unique problem. It is recommended that you use a fake name we accessing a chat room. If someone ask for personal information if you do not know them it is best to give false information. Never use your real name for your user name; this gives the cracker a head start on getting personal information about you.

Instant messaging (IM) is another security risk that exists today. Whenever you download a file through IM you are bypassing your firewall. Be sure you know the person you are downloading from before you download it. Always scan the file for viruses just incase the person that sent it to you has a virus and they are not aware of it.

Peer to Peer file sharing such as Morpheus are a big target for hackers. One this type of program bypasses your firewall, two you are download files that can be infected, and lastly it gives them access to your computer because they now have your IP address.
This is also considered by the Government to be a way to share warez programs, and illegal music downloads. There are lawsuits being handed out to people over this.

A recent type of nuisance has become popular. This is called spyware. While spyware can come in files that you download, it can also come from cookies. Cookies are items that are left on your machine for each website that you visit. These cookies contain information such as your username and password. It is recommended that you clean your cookies, history, and temporary files regularly. Directions for this can be found on the net. To remove the spyware however you will need a spyware remover. Again there are commercial and free ones. If you are like me and don’t want to spend the money I recommend Adaware. This can be downloaded for free from many sites on the net.

If you take the steps presented here in you will not be completely safe but you will have narrowed the chances of anything, serious happening to your computer or files. The one constant on the Internet is everyone is vulnerable, everyday new bugs are found in all types of software. It is in your best interest in this electronic age to stay on top of the latest developments so that you can prepare your computer for them.