It's fairly common today to hear of PCs getting hacked, getting attacked by viruses, controlled by trojans, monitored by spyware - and yet much of it is preventable. You don't need fancy software or hardware (although it does help) to protect yourself better - you just need to look around your computer and spot the door that most people leave wide open; The Network.
You can call it the Internet, Intranet, WiFi, Broadband, Dialup - whatever you wish - is essence though you are connecting your PC to a network of some sort - and chances are these days that you're not the only person connected to it. The more 'social' you make your network to other people the more likely you'll have visitors - and chances are they're not the kind you'd welcome...
The Goal
The ideal is to allow your PC all the access to the network that it needs but to restrict the access that the network has back to your PC. In this way you can prevent many of the common attacks on the network that people expose themselves to without even realising it.
Average Joe
Lets take a look at Average Joe (AJ), sitting at home on his PC, connecting to the internet via his lovely brand spanking new Wireless Router and highlight some of the common pitfalls that you can avoid with some very basic changes.
Correcting Common Pitfalls
Remote Administration:
On nearly all Wireless/Broadband Routers today there is an option to allow you to manage this remotely. Unless you really need to fiddle with your home/business network while you're not in the building there's no reason to have this enabled.
Secure Your WiFi:
This is a subjective one. Do you want to share your internet connection with anyone in the area? If the answer is 'No' then you need to make sure that you configure your Wireless Network properly. First and foremost this means choosing an encryption mode and setting a token/password. If you're wireless router supports it choose WPA-2 or WPA and try to choose a token/password that someone standing outside your house couldn't guess.
If you're a little lost on the whole WEP/WPA/WPA-2 thing and want more info you can check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wi-Fi_Protected_Access and this article on the NeoWin forums.
Don't open common Ports:
If for some reason you do need to open ports on your Router to the internet to allow you to connect then choose ports that only you (and your colleagues) know rather than opt for the default port for the protocol.
Default Ports: SSH (22), HTTP (80), HTTPS (443), FTP (21), MS Windows Remote Desktop (3389)
You can then use the options on your Router to remap the ports back to the actual ports that need to be connected to inside your network;
Exposed Port (7421) -> Internal Port (22)
By using a port number that's not the default you make it less likely that someone will be able to determine what service you have behind that port as well as prevent a lot of the zombie-type bots out there ont he internet from just trying to brute-force attack your server/PC
Enable your Firewall:
There's a Firewall built into all versions of MS Windows from XP onwards (XP, VIsta, Win7) and there's no excuse for not using it. It's one of the simplest ways to protect your PC on the network. If you don't like the Firewall built into MS Windows there's lots of alternatives - but for me - it does the job, doesn't complicate setup and is SFOS (Significant Female Other Safe)
Disable File & Print Sharing:
Unless you need to share files from your own PC this option should be disabled. In the case of AJ above there's no need to have File & Print Sharing enabled as he's going to be the only person on his home network.
The advantage here is that it's simple to switch on and off so that you can enable it only when you need to.
There's many more ways you can prevent your PC from attacks on the network - I've only highlighted a few simple ones that you can make, which shouldn't affect your day-to-day use of the PC and yet can protect you from many of the common ways in which less scrupulous people try to monitor, control or just plain trash your computer.
If you're concerned about the security of your home or business network - feel free to give us a call here at iPing and we can help you secure and manage your network better.