 Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe  |
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| Article Title :: Password Safety |
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If you've been on the internet for any length of time, you've
collected about a zillion accounts and their associated
passwords. Personally, I have over 500 different active accounts
all over the web and probably a thousand more inactive or unused
accounts.
Most people don't have anywhere near that number, but I'll bet
you have at least a couple of dozen. Let's see, you've probably
got an account at your bank's website, a few credit cards,
egroups, perhaps a few webrings, your ISP, email, hotmail,
perhaps AOL, and a few others that you don't use as often.
If you are like most people, you cannot even come close to
remembering it all. In fact, a lot of people simply create the
same account (read full article) |
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| Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe |
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| Article Title :: Security: Referrer |
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If you are a webmaster, you will find that one of the most
valuable things you can use is the referrer. On the other hand,
if you are a surfer, you may want to disable this feature as it
can be a security risk and a violation of your privacy.
What is this referrer thingie? Well, all web servers have the
capability to create log files and virtually all web masters (at
least those who know what they are doing) use these logs to
determine how their web site is doing. The log files contain one
line for each hit to the web site. The format and contents of
the line vary from server to server (and webmasters can specify
they want more or less information), but in general it has an
incredible amou (read full article) |
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| Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe |
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| Article Title :: Security: Ad Blocking |
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I don't know about you, but I find banner ads pretty darn
obnoxious. Now, I do understand that the foundation upon which
the internet is built is, pure and simple: advertising. That's
what makes the internet work, and that's why it was growing so
fast. It's interesting to see companies fold as advertising
falls short of expectations.
I hate those ugly banner ads (especially that "punch the monkey"
thing). They steal my bandwidth and they take room from content.
Think about it, you have a 10k banner, you lose a couple of
seconds of bandwidth and about an inch off the top of your
screen.
Even worse are those idiotic pop-up banner ads which free web
sites seem to love (at least now most of t (read full article) |
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| Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe |
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| Article Title :: Security: Firewalls |
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If you spend a lot of time on the internet and you are not
behind a firewall, then you are living on borrowed time. Putting
some protection between you and the internet is probably the
third most important thing that you can do (after getting virus
checking software and performing regular backups).
The diagram to the left shows an unprotected system using a DSL
modem. As you can see, someone on the internet can attach the
computer system easily as the DSL modem provides no protection
(some DSL modems have built-in firewalls). An attacker can get
through any type of modem - DSL, cable, 56K, 28.8 or whatever.
If the device gets you on the internet, you are vulnerable.
For those with a DSL, (read full article) |
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| Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe |
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| Article Title :: Virus Protection |
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One of the saddest things in the entire world is hearing the
words, "I think I've been hit by a virus" or "my computer was
destroyed by a virus, can you help me please?"
Every time I hear these words I want to cry - well, actually I
want to scream in frustration and a little bit of anger. You
see, it's not hard to protect your system from destruction by
any one of the fifty thousand or more viruses out in the wild.
In fact, it's so simple that it's pitiful that anyone gets
caught "with their pants down" more than once in his or her
lives.
By this time it's inconceivable that anyone with any contact
with civilization is ignorant of viruses and their destructive
potential. A few years ago y (read full article) |
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| Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe |
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| Article Title :: So What's A Cookie For, Anyway? |
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With all of the rhetoric about cookies, many people don't
understand that these little text files were invented for a
reason. In fact, cookies were created to solve the internet's
equivalent of Alzheimer's disease. You see, web sites do not
remember who they are talking to!
The web was designed to be simple and straightforward. You (a
browser such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) ask for something
from a web server. The web server obediently hands it to you,
then goes off to do something else. This is due to the original
purpose of the web - a vast electronic library!
The web was never designed to support electronic commerce. It
was designed to support reading text. Images, videos, sound (read full article) |
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| Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe |
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| Article Title :: Redirect Worms Away |
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My site is hosted on an Apache web server. Why is that? Because,
in my humble opinion, Microsoft's IIS web server is in no way
qualified to service internet web sites (it is excellent as an
intranet and applications server, however). Another reason is
the vast number of security issues that seem to pop up day after
day.
In point of fact, the Gartner Group has recommended "that
businesses hit by both Code Red and Nimda immediately
investigate alternatives to IIS, including moving Web
applications to Web server software from other vendors such as
iPlanet and Apache".
http://www4.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=101034
But what about those of us who are already hosting their sites
on Apa (read full article) |
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| Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe |
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| Article Title :: Viruses: The Code Red Worm |
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Years from now, we will all look back on the summer of 2001 as
one of the strangest summers in the history of the internet. We
will surely laugh at the frantic gyrations of system
administrators and security professionals because of a worm
called "Code Red". We system administrators will most certainly
chuckle as we fondly reminisce on the late evenings spent
patching server after server at the urging of our security
professionals. And hey, that blue screen or two that resulted
was so much fun to research, and the reinstalls that we had to
do the next day will certainly be the topic of campfire
conversations for years to come! Not!
During late July and early August, Microsoft, CERT (Comput (read full article) |
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| Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe |
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| Article Title :: Hijackware |
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ethical: conforming to accepted professional standards of
conduct -- Merriam-Webster OnLine: Collegiate Dictionary.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary.htm 2001. (17 August
2001).
I swear, internet marketing companies are getting more obnoxious
and unethical every day. I guess it was just naive to thing the
banner ad risen to it's highest heights of stupidity with the
"punch the money" banner. And I don't know about you, but I
didn't really believe the marketers could get any lower on the
scum scale than the exit windows that run away from the cursor
so they are more difficult to close.
Well, I was wrong and I admit I was incredibly naive.
The marketers have come up with some incr (read full article) |
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| Category :: Site Security Articles |
Author :: Richard Lowe |
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| Article Title :: Security: Fraud |
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Fraud is rampant on the internet. It is everywhere that you
look. When you are lurking in newsgroups you will find hundreds
of messages inviting you to spend money here, there and
everywhere. You'll get email demanding your time, attention,
and, of course, money for something. Surfing the web will turn
up many sites with some incredible offers which, of course, just
happen to require your credit card number - but don't worry,
they "just need it to validate your age" (or whatever) - DON'T
GIVE THEM YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY KNOW
IT'S SAFE.
The web is a media of communication. It allows everyone to
communicate with anyone for the price of a computer, phone line
and intern (read full article) |
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