Laptops Desktops Monitors & LCDs Graphics Cards Handhelds Phones Software Networks Printers More »
search
advertisement
Click Here.
AnchorDesk

Bill Machrone
Stop the hack attacks with high-end server protection

Bill Machrone
Contributing Editor PC Magazine
Tuesday, March 27, 2001
TalkBack!Add your opinion
Hackers are a depressing fact of life. Any time I need a reminder of just how bad it is, I can monitor the firewall on the WatchGuard SOHO router behind my cable modem, and watch the attacks as they bounce off it.

(It's also rejecting my VPN packets at the moment; nothing's perfect.) Some of the attacks are fairly persistent, but you ain't seen nothin' until you've watched the log on a real server where a hacker thinks he has an opportunity.

THERE'S EVEN A NAME for such a tempting target---a honeypot---and system administrators set them up regularly to attract hackers away from their real systems and to trap the jerks who persist in trying to co-opt your machine or steal corporate data.

Trapping hackers is one route to security; another is locking down a server so that nobody, neither evil hacker nor clueless programmer on your own staff, can change vital files, directory structures, or permissions. Some products, such as Entercept, do some of each, detecting hack attacks and shutting down the services that are under attack.

PC Magazine has reviewed a pair of products, one a honeypot (Specter), the other a lockdown (WatchGuard ServerLock), and found both to be effective. Check out our reviews for an in-depth look at how they work.

YOU CAN ALSO GET a comprehensive server health checkup with Steve Gibson's PatchWork, which currently operates on Windows NT servers. It looks for vulnerabilities and for evidence of prior intrusions. The cost? Free. Steve worked with the FBI and the Center for Internet Security to develop this handy little (less than 30K!) utility. If you're running any NT servers, get a copy at the Center for Internet Security site.

Steve's software is great, but remember that it's just a checkup, not a cure. For that you'll need something more robust, like the products we've reviewed here.

How do you stop hack attacks? What's the best way to keep your servers safe? TalkBack to me.

Previous Story   

Special sponsor stores