Battling the bad guys

Couple complex network security with people's natural gullibility, and it's no wonder they're getting clobbered.

Ten years ago, Kevin Mitnick was on the run from the FBI when I took a research assignment for a book about the infamous hacker. Subsequently, my phones were "phreaked" (hacked and eavesdropped) by Mitnick's friends and tapped by the feds, and my e-mail read by all.

Over the years as I penned stories for Network World, Computerworld and others about firewalls, Trojan horses, the first distributed denial of service and the ILoveU virus, I kept wondering: If it's this hard for IT to secure the network, what's going to happen at home?

What's happening is broadband home networks are getting clobbered. Home users still are clicking virus-laden links and opening attachments with compelling subject lines.

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Ten years ago, Kevin Mitnick was on the run from the FBI when I took a research assignment for a book about the infamous hacker. Subsequently, my phones were "phreaked" (hacked and eavesdropped) by Mitnick's friends and tapped by the feds, and my e-mail read by all.

Over the years as I penned stories for Network World, Computerworld and others about firewalls, Trojan horses, the first distributed denial of service and the ILoveU virus, I kept wondering: If it's this hard for IT to secure the network, what's going to happen at home?

What's happening is broadband home networks are getting clobbered. Home users still are clicking virus-laden links and opening attachments with compelling subject lines.

Most don't update their anti-virus software (62%) and have misconfigured firewalls (67%), according to recent study of 120 users conducted by AOL and published by the National Cyber Security Alliance.

Meanwhile there were 4,496 new variants of Windows-based viruses and worms released between January and June of this year, according to Symantec's Internet Threat Report.

Couple the complexity of network security with people's natural gullibility, and it's no wonder they suffer so badly. Or as Mitnick put it to me during a phone call just after his release from prison, "It's so easy to fool people because they want to believe you."

One of the biggest problems you and your clan face is spyware. Outpacing viruses, spyware congests 90% of home networks, according to the AOL study. But because spyware hides all over the system registry, you just can't delete it; you need to install a search and destroy program such as Ad-Aware, WebRoot's SpySweep or Computer Associates' Pest Patrol. These programs range in effectiveness so I recommend installing at least two. Some ISPs like AOL, EarthLink and AT&T also have begun offering free spyware protection as part of their services.

But that's not the end of it. These utilities don't run automatically so you'll need to teach your people how to use them. Plus, you'll need to add pop-up blockers to ensure spyware doesn't use pop-up ads to reestablish itself on the system.

SECURITY TOOLBOX

Good book When explaining network security to your users, have on hand Degunking Windows by Joli Ballew, Jeff Duntemann (Paraglyph Press; $16.99 at Amazon). Chap- ters explain file cleanup and organization, spyware, spam, cookies and setting up a Windows XP Internet Connection firewall. Better browser Mozilla Firefox is reliable and not nearly as exploitable as Internet Explorer. It’s easy to install and use, but because the e-mail program was tough to configure, I’m still using Outlook. Tales from the front We’d love to hear what home net security issues you face — and how you deal with them.Write to securitychief@nww.com.

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We'll help you manage home network security, covering topics like the difference between a desktop firewall and a filtering router, and practical behaviors and protections for instant-messaging users. We'll show you how to use parental controls to set policies to protect your kids from harm while protecting the network from dangers in file-sharing and other sites young people visit.