Who Do You Trust? Firewalls

After you ensure your passwords are strong and known only to you, you need to ensure your router is properly configured. I discussed these steps in my two previous posts of this series. In this article, we will talk about firewalls, what they are, where and how to use them.

As I have said before, Internet security should be implemented in layers. No one layer offers sufficient protection. Another layer you should always use is a firewall. A firewall is a guard at the door between two networks. It decides who and what goes through the door in both directions. If you have a door connecting your private network or computer with the Internet, you NEED a good door guard!

I will not try and describe how they work in detail. I began to, then realized after typing three paragraphs, that most people don't need to understand the detail and, there is way too much of it! Technical types can argue about the nuances and exceptions to my explanation, but for most people, it is enough to understand firewalls at a basic level.

Hackers and Their Methods of Operendi Don't Always Give Them Away

Often hacker groups methods to pin the crime on someone else. So, let's say you have 160 known hacking groups world-wide, most are loosely affiliated. Plus, you have government and foreign military or cyber-spy commands perhaps adding another 50 or so to the mix, some quite sophisticated. Not long ago, I was reading 150 page research report on cyber security, cyber warfare, hactivists, and criminal hackers. Okay so let's talk for second shall we?

One of the chapters in the report suggested that it was easy to tell if a hacking group was part of a state-sponsored cyber command, or just would-be hackers messing around because you could tell by their style and methods. However, I would question this because cyber commands would be wise to cloak as hactivists, or petty hacker teenagers when trying to break into a system of a Corporation, or government agency. Meanwhile the report proposes that the hackers aren't that smart, and that they always use the same methods of operandi, I completely disagree with this.

There may be some that do, but I bet most of them have many tricks up their sleeve, and they may even purposely mimic the methodologies and tactics of other hacking groups to shield and hide their own identities - in other words, mix it up a little so they don't get caught. Wouldn't they, or are we to believe and think hackers are stupid or something? They aren't, they're obviously smart enough to break into nearly every single computer system on the planet, they have been busy breaking into everything in the last few years, these aren't stupid individuals - in fact, I wonder if anything is safe of sacred anymore?

How Has Online Security Developed?

Thankfully, the majority of internet users are now far more clued up when it comes to protecting themselves against virus-spreading techniques such as these. Nowadays the email would be regarded as the most basic of phishing scams and even those who were fooled would probably be warned against opening the attachment by their anti-virus software.

However, it would appear that there is still a lot more that businesses could and should be doing to protect themselves against the actions of cyber-criminals.

The recent hacks of huge firms like Sony, Citibank and MI6 have proved that cyber-criminals are becoming more intelligent.

Malware

The ILOVEYOU email virus was the first high-profile example of a financially-motivated attack on computers.

However, there are now thousands of organised cyber-crime groups across the world hoping to make a profit by infiltrating computer networks and installing malware on vulnerable websites.