DO YOU LOCK YOUR DOOR AT NIGHT?
| Category: Archive catalogue | Date: 2003-10-09 |
If security is not on the top of your list when youre doing business on the Internet, IT SHOULD BE!
Almost every day you hear about top web sites across the country being hacked into by the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. You need to know that connecting your computer to the Internet without essential security devices is like going to bed at night with your front door unlocked... in the worst neighborhood you can imagine. Youre just asking for trouble!
Whether you know it or not, every single second of each day, your computer, its software and most importantly, your data (files, financial information, records, email list and other incredibly important information) are potentially subject for the world to see, use and delete... that is if it hasnt happened already.
Did you know that while youre online, and by that I mean anytime you or a computer on your network is connected to the Internet, your competition, hackers and other curious people can probably access your computer hard drive and look at any of the data stored on it. Experienced programs and hackers can snoop around your system and learn each and every private and personal detail of your life... Without you ever knowing it.
Unscrupulous individuals can change, modify, borrow, steal and even delete your important and confidential data. They can "plant" self-activating programs on your system that can do everything from record your every keystroke to dial up and transfer your data to another place on the internet at certain designated times or dates.
And the most frightening thing about all of this is that 9 out of 10 computer users take absolutely no precautions to protect themselves, their families, their businesses and their customers and clients from becoming victims. These people are going to bed at night and leaving their front door WIDE OPEN! Theyre begging the bad guys to stick their heads in and look around.... and if you like what you see, its yours!
VIRUS:
Virus can easily be downloaded and before you know it, all the data on your hard drive can be deleted. Or, the virus can access your email address list and send out an email to everyone you know, making it appear as though the message came from you, containing a virus "bomb" that completely destroys all the data on each of your friends computers.
In most cases, its difficult if not impossible to know if you have a virus until its too late. From email to floppies, virus can be transported to your computer systems by numerous ways.
So, how can you protect yourself from these potential security breaches and virus hazards? Well, here are several important steps you can take right now to protect yourself...
THINGS YOU NEED TO DO RIGHT NOW!
Fortunately, there are several straightforward things you can immediately do to protect yourself from these attacks.
Steps you can take to establish a fully automatic 24 hour a day protection shield so that you can focus your attention on your work rather than supervising access to your computer. Here are several suggestions to protect yourself and your data...
PASSWORDS- If youre not using the password mode on your computer you should start immediately. Although it can be a minor inconvenience, use setup to make sure that when your system boots up, it asks you for your username and password. Its easy for experienced hackers to get around this basic defense but it is a good, first step to take today.
FILE SHARING- Most users are unaware that they can tell their computer system whether or not to allow others to be able to share, read or write to files on their hard drive. Depending on your system, its important that you unselect this option of allowing others to share files on your system. If you connect to the Internet and you have file sharing on, anyone with just a little knowledge can read and write to your hard drive. Pretty scary when you think about it.
To turn filing sharing off in Windows 95, 98 and 2000, go to the control panel and select the network icon. Then select the network protocol you are using and uncheck the filing sharing option.
FIREWALLS AND SOFTWARE PROTECTION- In most cases, you can prevent the unauthorized access to your computer system with these fairly simple to use products. Once setup, they work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep others from accessing your system while connected to the Internet. The beautiful thing about these perpetual secret service agents is that they monitor your network and Internet connections while quietly running in the background. Its just like you have your own private butler to close and lock the front door to your house after youve gone to bed! Set it up right and you wont have to do anything.
BlackICE Defender by Network ICE is an excellent program that does a great job of protecting your system. It alerts you when someone tries to gain access to your system and depending on the severity of the attempted access, it then ask you if you would like to report the incident to the appropriate ISP provider. We use this program on several of our systems and were amazed to learn that almost on a daily basis, and sometimes more than once a day, our systems are the unwilling subjects of attempted unauthorized access. In fact, hackers use programs that use robots that
automatically search the internet for other computers that they can gain access to. And when they find a computer that can be accessed, the robot then sends a message to the hacker. The point is that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of these programs searching for vulnerable computer systems right now, as we speak. You can get your own copy of BlackICE at http://www.mainplace.com/go/blackice
Another good, but slightly more complicated program is Norton Internet Security 2000 from Symantec. Norton uses a Swiss army knife of utilities to not only protect your system, but also allows parents to restrict childrens access to the Web. Youll also get Nortons antivirus protection and the ability to block "the wrong" ads from being seen by young eyes. Norton Security 2000 can be picked up online at http://www.mainplace.com/go/nortonsecurity2000
The very best protection is to use a FireWall setup on a dedicated server connected to the Internet. You then connect all of your computers to the FireWall. Watch Guard SOHO by WatchGuard Technologies is just the trick for this more complete and bulletproof protective device. WatchGuard can be found at http://www.mainplace.com/go/watchguard
Excellent Virus protection can be easily implemented by taking advantage of several good programs. Each of these programs monitors your system for unwanted viruses and then takes care of business! These programs will run in the background and check every file you download and every incoming email for the latest viruses. In fact, they will even automatically check their web sites for the latest virus "definitions" and then download the updates so that your system is always on the lookout for the latest virus! Norton Virus for Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT is at:
http://www.mainplace.com/go/nortonvirus2000
CONCLUSION:
If you take the above steps to protect your confidential data, youll be 10 steps ahead of 99% of all the other unprotected users on the Internet. Your data will be safe from unauthorized access and more importantly, so will your customers!
Its just like climbing into bed knowing that your front door is closed tightly and securely locked!
About the Author
Jon Mitchell Jackson, Esq., is a part-time Judge, full- time trial attorney and editor of MainPLACEs e-Business Marketing and Solutions Report (The IBMS Report) is published each Wednesday. The IBMS Report is enjoyed by 20,000+ smart e-business owners, marketers and entrepreneurs all over the world. Subscribe to this free publication TODAY at:
http://www.mainplace.com/ezine.htm
Almost every day you hear about top web sites across the country being hacked into by the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. You need to know that connecting your computer to the Internet without essential security devices is like going to bed at night with your front door unlocked... in the worst neighborhood you can imagine. Youre just asking for trouble!
Whether you know it or not, every single second of each day, your computer, its software and most importantly, your data (files, financial information, records, email list and other incredibly important information) are potentially subject for the world to see, use and delete... that is if it hasnt happened already.
Did you know that while youre online, and by that I mean anytime you or a computer on your network is connected to the Internet, your competition, hackers and other curious people can probably access your computer hard drive and look at any of the data stored on it. Experienced programs and hackers can snoop around your system and learn each and every private and personal detail of your life... Without you ever knowing it.
Unscrupulous individuals can change, modify, borrow, steal and even delete your important and confidential data. They can "plant" self-activating programs on your system that can do everything from record your every keystroke to dial up and transfer your data to another place on the internet at certain designated times or dates.
And the most frightening thing about all of this is that 9 out of 10 computer users take absolutely no precautions to protect themselves, their families, their businesses and their customers and clients from becoming victims. These people are going to bed at night and leaving their front door WIDE OPEN! Theyre begging the bad guys to stick their heads in and look around.... and if you like what you see, its yours!
VIRUS:
Virus can easily be downloaded and before you know it, all the data on your hard drive can be deleted. Or, the virus can access your email address list and send out an email to everyone you know, making it appear as though the message came from you, containing a virus "bomb" that completely destroys all the data on each of your friends computers.
In most cases, its difficult if not impossible to know if you have a virus until its too late. From email to floppies, virus can be transported to your computer systems by numerous ways.
So, how can you protect yourself from these potential security breaches and virus hazards? Well, here are several important steps you can take right now to protect yourself...
THINGS YOU NEED TO DO RIGHT NOW!
Fortunately, there are several straightforward things you can immediately do to protect yourself from these attacks.
Steps you can take to establish a fully automatic 24 hour a day protection shield so that you can focus your attention on your work rather than supervising access to your computer. Here are several suggestions to protect yourself and your data...
PASSWORDS- If youre not using the password mode on your computer you should start immediately. Although it can be a minor inconvenience, use setup to make sure that when your system boots up, it asks you for your username and password. Its easy for experienced hackers to get around this basic defense but it is a good, first step to take today.
FILE SHARING- Most users are unaware that they can tell their computer system whether or not to allow others to be able to share, read or write to files on their hard drive. Depending on your system, its important that you unselect this option of allowing others to share files on your system. If you connect to the Internet and you have file sharing on, anyone with just a little knowledge can read and write to your hard drive. Pretty scary when you think about it.
To turn filing sharing off in Windows 95, 98 and 2000, go to the control panel and select the network icon. Then select the network protocol you are using and uncheck the filing sharing option.
FIREWALLS AND SOFTWARE PROTECTION- In most cases, you can prevent the unauthorized access to your computer system with these fairly simple to use products. Once setup, they work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to keep others from accessing your system while connected to the Internet. The beautiful thing about these perpetual secret service agents is that they monitor your network and Internet connections while quietly running in the background. Its just like you have your own private butler to close and lock the front door to your house after youve gone to bed! Set it up right and you wont have to do anything.
BlackICE Defender by Network ICE is an excellent program that does a great job of protecting your system. It alerts you when someone tries to gain access to your system and depending on the severity of the attempted access, it then ask you if you would like to report the incident to the appropriate ISP provider. We use this program on several of our systems and were amazed to learn that almost on a daily basis, and sometimes more than once a day, our systems are the unwilling subjects of attempted unauthorized access. In fact, hackers use programs that use robots that
automatically search the internet for other computers that they can gain access to. And when they find a computer that can be accessed, the robot then sends a message to the hacker. The point is that there are thousands, if not tens of thousands of these programs searching for vulnerable computer systems right now, as we speak. You can get your own copy of BlackICE at http://www.mainplace.com/go/blackice
Another good, but slightly more complicated program is Norton Internet Security 2000 from Symantec. Norton uses a Swiss army knife of utilities to not only protect your system, but also allows parents to restrict childrens access to the Web. Youll also get Nortons antivirus protection and the ability to block "the wrong" ads from being seen by young eyes. Norton Security 2000 can be picked up online at http://www.mainplace.com/go/nortonsecurity2000
The very best protection is to use a FireWall setup on a dedicated server connected to the Internet. You then connect all of your computers to the FireWall. Watch Guard SOHO by WatchGuard Technologies is just the trick for this more complete and bulletproof protective device. WatchGuard can be found at http://www.mainplace.com/go/watchguard
Excellent Virus protection can be easily implemented by taking advantage of several good programs. Each of these programs monitors your system for unwanted viruses and then takes care of business! These programs will run in the background and check every file you download and every incoming email for the latest viruses. In fact, they will even automatically check their web sites for the latest virus "definitions" and then download the updates so that your system is always on the lookout for the latest virus! Norton Virus for Windows 95, 98, 2000 and NT is at:
http://www.mainplace.com/go/nortonvirus2000
CONCLUSION:
If you take the above steps to protect your confidential data, youll be 10 steps ahead of 99% of all the other unprotected users on the Internet. Your data will be safe from unauthorized access and more importantly, so will your customers!
Its just like climbing into bed knowing that your front door is closed tightly and securely locked!
About the Author
Jon Mitchell Jackson, Esq., is a part-time Judge, full- time trial attorney and editor of MainPLACEs e-Business Marketing and Solutions Report (The IBMS Report) is published each Wednesday. The IBMS Report is enjoyed by 20,000+ smart e-business owners, marketers and entrepreneurs all over the world. Subscribe to this free publication TODAY at:
http://www.mainplace.com/ezine.htm
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