Firewall – The Motto

In today’s age of convenient and faster communication there is an increasing technological dependence, which makes cyber safety a critical concern for every individual. Recent incidents relating to cyber crime have not just increased the vulnerability of various socio-economic constituents, but also brought forth the need for better awareness programs in stopping this growing menace.

Over the last few years, the frauds within the IT world have not only increased in occurrence but also managed to change its forms. The development of new threats has been faster than what the IT world could ever imagine or even come up with terms to describe them. Child pornography, hacking, cyber stalking, credit card fraud, net extortion, phishing and even the “Nigerian Advance Fee Scam” are just some of the topics.

Introduction: Firewall is an initiative to create awareness about “Cyber-Safety”. In today’s age of convenient and faster communication there is an increasing technological dependence, which makes cyber safety a critical concern for every individual. Recent incidents relating to cyber crime have not just increased the vulnerability of various socio-economic constituents, but also brought forth the need for better awareness programs in stopping this growing menace.

Objectives: To educate students, teachers, parents and NGOs on internet related threats and solutions.

Key Stakeholders: Project team members and other participants from Firewall thread, students, teachers, parents, NGO admin staff for schools and colleges.

Target Audience: Students, Teachers and Parents.

Which is the best anti virus program now?

Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro are the Big 3 in the Antivirus Industry. They have several products which deliver.

In my years of computer experience, i always feel that what ever the antivirus it should have the Latest Definitions to provide effective protection. It’s hard to clean a file which is infected with virus, so you should make sure that the virus doesn’t enter your system in the first place. For this you need to install the antivirus with the current definition files before connecting to the internet or opening any CD which you bought from your friend.Norton is very slow, i have heard this from majority of my customers, but they should understand it depends on which version of Norton you are using. People generally use Norton Internet Security which is basically just not an Antivirus, but firewall, IDS, Antivirus and Anti spam in one application.

So when you compare running the above against AVG Antivirus which is a Virus only scanner your system would be definitely slow. But you should also take into account the protection if offers. My first choice would be Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 10 if
you want a Virus and Spyware solution and Norton Internet Security if you want all in one solution. But remember Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro charge for subscription to get the updates.

I have used AVG in some cases and would give a 5 Star rating for its abilities. If you want to pay for your Antivirus go with Symantec or McAfee. Free would be definitely AVG. If your system is infected with Virus and won’t allow the existing Antivirus to run a scan and won’t allow installation of New Antivirus you can use McAfee Stinger. It’s a single EXE file which would run and clean the Viruses. You can copy the EXE file to a boot CD and run the Application booting of the CD and running. This would allow the EXE to run and clean viruses without loading the Windows file system and hence effective cleaning.

http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/polipstinger.asp

Above link would allow you to download Stinger and has instructions on how to use it.

Securing your Wireless Network……

Here are some tips and tricks to help secure your wireless network.

To go Wireless you need a Wireless Router. A Wireless router is a device to which you connect your ISP Internet Cable and the Router connects your Laptops or Desktops with Wireless network cards to the internet using Wireless Connectivity.

First and most important thing is to change the default admin password. Different Brands use different Admin User name and password combinations which are readily available on the internet. For Example: admin-password, admin-admin123, admin-. Such passwords can be easily figured out by hackers when they are left as the default. Not changing your wireless admin password is like putting a box of sweets with an open lid in a place full of ants.

Packets of data flow on the Wireless Network just as Packets flow in Wired Networks and this makes the job very easy for a Hacker to use a Sniffer and Sniff the packets, and most of the popular services like Yahoo send the password unencrypted. To combat this you need to turn on encryption. Enabling WEP encryption on your wireless network will help you protect your privacy and all your info won’t be floating around outside your home waiting to be picked up by a passerby. You can define a long phase phrase like
TheQuuickBrownFooxJumpedOverTheLazyDOG, or something similar without which the passerby wont be able to connect to your network.

Another important option is to disable the auto-connect feature. Do not allow your devices to auto-connect. Allowing auto-connect may connect to a network that you don’t particularly want. To further enhance security you can enable your wireless router to accept connected only from the MAC Address defined in the allow list. You can add the MAC Address of your Laptop and Desktop to allow list and ensure that only those 2 devices can connect to the Wireless Router.

Another Trick which works without any configuration is, place the wireless router close to the center of your home. Although the reach of WiFi networks can vary greatly, it’s important to not allow the signal to float around great distances from the main access point. It is impossible to stop all leakages from exiting your home. But minimizing the risk to your WiFi network will help to protect it.

Another good idea for WiFi network security is to change the SID and not allow broadcast of the SSID. Your router may have SSID
broadcasting set up by default; however you should be able to change this setting in the configuration.

These are just a few tips to securing your WiFi network. It’s always a good idea to check for firmware updates to your router as new exploits and vulnerabilities arise. Some routers will have an auto update feature and it’s important to use it. Using auto update will help keep your WiFi network secure without the need of remembering to check for updates.

How to choose a Secure Password?

Due to the number of Usernames and Password one needs to remember, we are inclined towards using something which we are already very familiar with to make it easier. We are also tempted to opt for universal passwords for everything because it is easier to remember just one password rather than several different passwords. Unfortunately, the danger associated to this is, a smart hacker can break them very easily.

First using a password with the real name or pet name of a user should be avoided. Moreover avoid passwords on information that can found with a bit of research on you, such as your wife’s name, child’s name, type of car you own, a phone number or vehicle license tag, your address, a parent’s name, your date of birth, etc.

A common method used by hackers to break a password is the dictionary method of attack. This method uses a dictionary in any language to try large numbers of words to see if an actual word is in the password. Reversed words, frequent misspellings and look-alike letter replacements are also checked.

One solution that is popular is to use a sentence that is easy to recall and use the first letter of each word in the sentence for the
password. Using this method, ”Please Do Not Throw Sausage Pizza Away” translates into the password “pdntspa”. To make it more complex, mix in some upper case letters and maybe “P” for Please. Add a date make the final password “Pdntspa1999″. It looks
complicated but it is easy to recall the year, and the sentence.

Since a great many passwords are case sensitive, the use of upper case letters greatly increases the difficulty of breaking such a password. Symbols can be used with some systems, so using an easy to remember question mark and a dollar sign will make the password “Anwy?ccdfy $1961″ makes it an even better password.

A change like this adds length to the password, making it far more difficult for a hacker to break. A password should be a minimum of eight characters but fourteen or more, like the example above, is best.

To enhance the security of your passwords, you should:Use a separate password for each program or application, don’t use a common password for all.Keep all passwords private, don’t share them with anyone who doesn’t really need to know. Every three or four months, change your passwords. So not use your passwords on shared computers such as in a public library or cyber cafe as there could be keystroke software installed.