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This year we are going to focus on steps that people should be doing with respect to securing their personal corner of cyberspace. Some of the subjects may include technical procedures such as turning off certain ports or services or modifying software, but we really want this to be more about the person rather than the machine.
To get the month started we will spend the first week talking about the computer your parents or your family uses. We’ll get to children and schools next week, but this week let’s stay focused on the adults. Many of us are our parents’ system administrators (as well as our extended family to include brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and anybody else who claims to be related to you especially when they remember that you’ve got half a clue about this thing called the Internet) so it’s important to pass along tips to our users whenever we are performing maintenance for them.
So today let’s look at some common sense advice about the family computer. Yes, we all know the mantra about keeping the anti-virus software updated and the system patched (we’ll talk more about that in a few days) but what else should we be doing? Some of the things that I recommend for the family PCs I work on include:
Keep all computers in full view (no hidden machines, no illusion of privacy)
Document computer details in writing (serial number, software, receipts, BIOSpassword, etc.) and keep the documentation in a fireproof box or safe
Use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS)for PCs, laptops have their own built-in UPS – the battery
Keep all of the hardware and software manuals, plus any software CDs/DVDs in one place that is easy to find
Use a cable lock to keep intruders from stealing the computer should there be a break-in
Throw a towel over the webcam (better: unplug the webcam)
Unless it needs to always be on, consider turning it off when not in use
Keep plenty of room around the PCso that air can flow through to cool it
What else? Use the comment link below to add your own ideas and comments to this list. It is definitely not complete, but should get the discussion started.
Marcus H. Sachs
Director, SANSInternet Storm Center
(c) SANS Internet Storm Center. http://isc.sans.org Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.
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It’s Cyber Security Awareness Month, and it’s about more than just educating users– security professionals can participate a little too. I want to start an additional track to the Internet Storm Center’s Cyber Security Awareness Series. This will be a month-long series of diaries to supplement our weekly topics.
It was near 05:30 GMT on Saturday, 25 January 2003 when the Slammer worm started to spread. Some of you probably remember where you were when you were first alerted to that incident. For those of you who didn’t get to experience that first hand, there’s a pretty decent Wikipedia article on it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Slammer). As I write this, I note that it’s well over 7 years later. But SQL Slammer alerts continue to be a top talker on my perimeter IDS.
It’s time to do something about that.
Slammer actvitiy has been written off as background radiation for long enough.
Througout this month I’m going to continue on this topic to inspire people to try something new. If you’re not looking at you logs, I want you to look at them. If you’re not reaching out to abuse contacts, I want you to send a few emails and make a few phone calls. If you’re not helping your customers clean up their systems, I want you to experiment and reach out to help a couple of them. See what happens. See if you can make a measureable difference.
I pulled the IDS and darknet logs from the day job. From just one day I see 153 unique source IP addresses generating IDS alerts, and on my external darknet I see 63 probing UDP/1434. How many do you see hitting your perimeter? How much bandwidth is being consumed that just that activity? Can you quantify that into a dollar amount?
That’s your homework for today. More to come.
-KL
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