A few days back I was at grc to run a “shields up” scan on a clients machine and found reference to their Security Now podcast (Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson.) The cast was about a VPN tool called Hamachi… so I revisited and gave a read to the Security Now! transcript. And then visited the Hamachi site. I’ve got to say, I’m impressed on a couple of levels with Hamachi. 1st it sounds as though they’ve done a great approach to a secure free VPN implementation. (Steve Gibson is a pretty good reference….) It’s also easy to install and use and beyond that there are linux/Windows versions of the client currently, Mac will be released after the 1.0 for Linux and Windows.
Tag: firewall
-
Another workaround for the 0-day WMF Exploit
I notice that the Sunbelt Blog has some instructions up for blocking the zero-day Windows Meta File (WMF) exploit with their newly acquired kerio firewall. (Free or full version.) Either version can use an add-on rule from bleeding-edge snort (intrusion detection signatures…) Instructions in the link above on how to implement the rule addition.
-
Keeping the new PC spyware free
Spyware Confidential has the top 10 tips to keep that new pc spyware free. Some good tips here and these should be on the checklist when setting up a new pc any time of the year…
Paraphrased here….
-
Ping not working? try ARP
I’ll confess to having a lot to learn about IP ethernet networking. I feel pretty comfortable with basic TCP/IP (v4), the concept of UDP vs. TCP ports, ICMP pings, etc… but ARP is something that I haven’t dabbled much with. It is, of course, a layer that TCP depends on. When a machine sends a packet to another machine, it sends an arp packet out to “discover” the hardware (MAC) address of the machine on the other end, so ARP underlies everything. These days ICMP is many times blocked by firewall rules. The default with XP’s software firewall is to block ICMP pings for instance.
-
Giving the gift of PC security
Brian Krebs at the securityfix has a good article for those that are getting a new pc for Christmas (or those that know someone who is.) He has a nice outline of setting up limited privilege user accounts, installing windows updates, using a firewall and using antivirus. This is a nice concise guide to get a Windows machine tweaked to a fairly secure state.
-
Sunbelt Finishes Kerio Firewall acquisition
Sunbelt Software has announced the completion of their acquisition of the Kerio Personal Firewall. They’ve also acquired the Kerio Server Firewall. The products have temporarily been rebranded…
We have acquired both the Kerio Personal Firewall and the Kerio Server Firewall. Both products will be re-branded on an interim basis as the “Sunbelt Kerio Personal Firewall†and “Sunbelt Kerio ServerFirewallâ€.
-
Network Security guide for the home or small business network – Part 4 – Know your software
Ok, so you’ve got a hardware firewall and you’ve got antivirus. You’re safe right? Well, not entirely. I’ve mentioned the flaws of antivirus. It’s always a step behind. A firewall doesn’t protect against unknown viruses, so what else is there to do? I’m going to tackle this in two steps. The first is to know what software is running on your system. Isn’t there a lot of that? How can I keep up?
-
How festive – the dasher worm…
The securityfix is reporting on a new worm that exploits an older Windows vulnerability. The worm is called dasher and is in at least it’s second iteration. Sans noticed an odd increase in port 1025 scans on the tenth of the month which was early activity of this worm. It looks like the first version of the worm didn’t work fully, but this second one does. It installs a keylogger.
-
Network Security guide for the home or small business network – Part 3 – Antivirus
Ok, the first two entries thus far, hardware firewalls and software firewalls have been fairly operating system independant. A hardware firewall is best, but if that’s not possible a software firewall will do until you get a hardware firewall setup. This next item is (currently) a must have for Windows users. However, Mac and Linux users may see the day soon when it is an essential part of security for those systems as well. These days I am stunned to see PC’s that don’t have an antivirus program installed.
-
Network Security guide for the home or small business network – Part 2 – A Software Firewall
Do I really need a hardware firewall? I’m running XP Service Pack 2 with the built in firewall? (or norton, or zonealarm?) Well, personal firewalls (the name that software firewalls go by) are good for a great many things that hardware firewalls AREN’T. They do have their limitations though and I’ll try to cover those in this post. Of course, a software firewall is running on the pc that you use to connect to the internet and one of the functions it serves is to “close the doors and windows” or those open ports that a computer can listen for connections on.