when i ran the port probe test at the 'shields up' site, it discovered a wide open port. and although the others were closed, only one had the highest, or 'stealth' status. in addition, my computer had accepted an anonymous connection from another machine (the grc machine). several private names were being served up to the internet via the network i am connected to. one was the dell service tag for my new machine. another was the mac or media access control address of the nic in my machine.
it took me 15 miutes, maybe 30 total, to go to the blackice defender site and download and install it. i'd read all about it before, so i was familiar. i just wasn't sold. the program configures itself. without touching a single setting, immediately after install, i went back to the 'shields up' site and ran the two tests.
everything was now full stealth mode. nothing about my machine was responding to the probes. vulnerabilities had been locked down. the difference was like night and day.
but this is just now. what a cracker can't do today, he or she might be able to do tomorrow. my eyes are now open wider than ever before. since yesterday, there has been one port scan... someone named dyno was checking to see if a particular port was open. not a lot of activity. but it's a bummer to see even one person coming around, 'trying the doorknob'.
:)
mark |
