...plus:
1. Turn off all unnecessary Services. Don't make it super-easy for hackers to take over your machine and do things like screen-share, turn your machine into a web-server, etc., by leaving these things on if you don't absolutely need them.
2. Turn off File and Print Sharing unless you actually use it. It puts out information that makes it much easier to attack your machine, even if it's behind a firewall.
3. Make sure your firewall's firmware is up to date. You can download firmware and upgrade utilities from the manufacturer of your router.
4. Use a hardware firewall, not a software one! Software firewalls, such as Black Ice Defender, etc., have repeatedly been shown to be significantly less effective than a purpose-built router with a firewall...
5. Don't use software that opens ports to constant 'net traffic unless you must. This specifically includes things like Kazaa or Limewire, chat applications like IRC and AIM, etc. All of these programs introduce specific security risks, and a hacker who's actually trying to attack you (more on this in a second) will definately know what ports these applications use and how to recognize the traffic. They can use that information to attack you through those applications in various ways.
Just because some computer in Korea is port-scanning you does
not means that the attacker is in Korea... or that you're necessarily being targeted. There are (literally) tens to hundreds of thousands of computers on the Internet which are being used as "zombie slaves" to help hackers figure out who is vulnerable... and they can then use this information to decide who to attack. Unless (in your RL world) you're wealthy, famous, or otherwise an obvious target... the chances are pretty good that you're getting randomly probed by this computer, not being deliberately attacked.
That said... it's always wise to assume that evil people are:
A. Everywhere.
B. Out to get you in particular.
It's like turning your car's alarm on when you exit the vehicle, y'know? Your chances of that alarm actually being either useful or necessary do not detract from the fact that the alarm does deter potential car thieves to some extent.
But unless you are willing to invest the time/energy/brain power to put powerful logging and network management tools onto your machine and configure them properly... and never run your computer without being physically present at the machine... any half-way decent hacker will successfully attack you. The only good way to stop a good hacker is to use the same tools they do, understand how they can attack you, and actively defend yourself. Passive defenses such as firewalls will basically just slow people down, and defeat "script kiddies" and other not-so-hot hackers. They will
not defeat anybody who actually knows what they're doing! The good news is that such people are actually pretty rare (hacking is, after all, pretty heavy-duty computer science) and most "hackers" merely use tools that are well-known and fairly easily defeated.
Lastly... if you really think someone's out to get you, personally... you can call your ISP, which will put their security staff on your side. They will take a look at the activity and determine what's appropriate- and let's face it... they usually know a lot more about such things than most people do, and see (literally) thousands of attacks every day, sometimes every hour. If they think you're being deliberately attacked, they will attempt to trace the hacker's route back to the source (which 99% of the time just leads back to a zombie which may or may not be under control by a hacker operating remotely) and then take up the issue with the ISP that is allowing the zombie to operate from their domain. Since ISPs that allow such things without taking action invariably get blacklisted (meaning that the vast majority of ISPs will filter their IP ranges out've their incoming port traffic, effectively ending that ISPs ability to access the Internet) most ISPs are, naturally, quite eager to stop would-be hackers, even in countries like Korea (which has strong anti-hacking regulations on the books, but is notoriously lax about enforcement).
So... um... yeah... that was probably more than you really wanted to know about hacking lol... basically, you
should be scared but you are not helpless... you are probably not being attacked, unless you've managed to really annoy somebody or have something worth stealing... and a phone call to your ISP's NOC (Network Operations Center) can usually get things fixed... fast
Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:30 pm 
