Guys like this commit most home computer break-ins. They aren’t geniuses.
They rarely target a specific person. Sometimes they want to steal from your
bank account or credit card. Oftentimes, however, they are
just plain creepy.
Someone hacked into the files of a friend with
whom I correspond through e-mail. They took personal information about my
5-year-old daughter who was killed about 3 years ago… and have been sending
e-mails to both my friend and myself using my daughter's name and talking
about "death" watching us, etc…
Fortunately, it doesn’t take much to keep most hackers out. This chapter
offers quick ways to defend against them.
Hackers usually break into home computers through:
- Trojans
- Viruses and
worms
- File
sharing
- Web sites that
attack your browser
Does your Computer Put out the Welcome Mat for Hackers?
There’s a fast, free way to find out whether hackers can easily break into
your computer – or might even already be inside.
http://happyhacker.org/defend/
links to several sites that scan your computer for vulnerabilities and back
doors. They run programs similar to those that computer criminals run against
your computer, trying to connect to your computer through its Internet
"ports." These are not physical ports such as USB, parallel or serial. They
are logical (virtual) ports created by software on your computer.
How do Internet ports work? It’s like saying "Hola" to a stranger. If she
responds with "Buenos dias," you can communicate in Spanish. If you try all
languages and get no response, it’s a good bet she knows not to talk to
strangers.
Your computer should refuse to respond to attack computers. If it does, the
attacker has succeeded in making a connection that is the first step to
breaking in.
Figures 1 and 2 show examples of what a vulnerability scanner may uncover.
Figure 1: A quick scan for vulnerabilities.
In Figure 1, a scanner has found the Internet address, NetBIOS name and
domain of the author’s computer. This means the author’s computer, Wargirl,
might allow file sharing. Even with passwords on file sharing, a hacker might
be able to exploit this port.
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