Washington (dpa) – It’s a jungle out there on the Internet. Hackers – people intent on destroying your data or just being a general nuisance – are waiting to pounce on your PC.
For people who connect to the Internet with a 56k modem, hackers are not a big worry. But increasingly, computer users are taking advantage of the high-speed, always-on Internet connections offered by cable TV providers or by telephone companies, which offer digital subscriber line (DSL) hook-ups.
While such connections are fast, they’re also vulnerable. The reason, say experts, is simple: the longer a person is logged on to the Internet at one time, the more of a target he or she becomes. With cable and DSL connections, it’s very tempting to leave your PC hooked up to the Internet all the time.
According to Virginia-based computer market research firm Current Analysis, one in ten high-speed Internet users will experience a hacker attack. And that means that for the first time, large numbers of computer users are starting to take PC security seriously.
It’s a good thing, too, because hackers can cause you lots of worry. Think about it: if a hacker infiltrates your system, he can do everything from erase files to planting viruses to snooping into your financial records, assuming you keep those on your PC. Do you have your bank records, your credit card number, your brokerage account number and password stored somewhere on your PC? Watch out.
While there are no records currently kept on the number of hacker attacks that private computer users have suffered, recent well- publicized security breaches and anecdotal evidence are scary enough.
There were the high-profile harassment of major Web sites such as Yahoo and Amazon.com. There are the increasingly sophisticated hacker programs available that let anyone with too much time on their hands probe the millions of vulnerable PCs out there.
There are reports of unknowing AOL users getting their passwords ripped off en masse.
The solution: for many, it’s a new category of software known as a “personal firewall”. Personal firewall software runs in the background on your PC, blocking any attempts that hackers might make to snoop around your PC.
Three very popular personal firewall programs currently on the market are Symantec’s Norton Internet Security 2000 (www.symantec.com), BlackICE Defender (www.networkice.com), and, for those on a budget, ZoneAlarm (www.zonelabs.com).
So how do these programs work? Specifically, personal firewall software blocks access to any static number that identifies your PC on the Internet. When you log on to the Internet, your system is assigned a so-called “Internet Protocol”, or IP, address – a string of numbers such as 123.123.123.78 – that identifies your machine on the Internet.
With dial-up Internet connections, the kind you use when you log on with a modem, those IP numbers are usually assigned “dynamically”, which means that the numbers change every time you dial up a provider.
Many DSL providers, though, assign their users “static”, or non- changing, IP addresses. These are an invitation to disaster, and it becomes imperative to use some kind of personal firewall protection if you have such a connection to the Internet.
But even cable and DSL connections that use dynamic IP addresses are vulnerable. That’s because all of these hook-ups run through a network adapter in the PC, and embedded in every network adapter card is a media access control (MAC) address that doesn’t change. This MAC address, which looks something like 0C-F6-64-09-12-A5, is also a unique identifier on the Internet.
Of the three most popular personal firewall programs, Symantec’s Norton Internet Security 2000 is the easiest to set up and offers the most comprehensive feature set, including a bundled version of Symatec’s Norton AntiVirus 2000.
Unfortunately, the product currently works only with Windows 95/98; it does not support Windows 2000, although Symantec is working on an update that will remedy that problem.
BlackICE Defender provides solid firewall protection and not much more. The program does not overwhelm novice users with configuration options and is a gem for those who like tools that do one job and do it well. One could argue, though, that BlackICE does its job a bit too well: the program monitors all network activity and is known for too often alerting the user to “suspicious” activity that is in fact harmless.
ZoneAlarm is really a gem of a personal firewall, and it’s free as well. The program hides all ports effectively and does so without raising a lot of false alarms. It’s provided at no cost for individual and non-profit use.
To be sure, personal firewall software is not the only solution to Internet security for always-on connections. Cable and DSL providers are increasingly being offered anti-hacking solutions from their equipment providers that use network-based firewalls that protect all users connected through their systems.
In addition, software and hardware makers such as Texas Instruments and CheckPoint Software are developing personal firewall solutions that will go into the chips used in DSL and cable modems. So in the future, you may have personal firewall protection automatically and not have to think about it.
In the meantime, though, personal firewall software should be a part of the software arsenal of every Internet user who adopts any type of always-on connection.
