SECURING A HOST COMPUTER By Kyle Bickel Definition

SECURING A HOST COMPUTER By Kyle Bickel

Definition � � Securing a host computer is making sure that your computer is secure when it’s connected to the internet This be done by several protective measures � Operating system � Firewalls � Antivirus protection � Setting Secure passwords

Operating System � � � Some operating systems are more secure like Linux and Unix compared to other operating systems like Windows which is the most attack operating system Operating system can help you secure your computer through the use of several built in methods They allow you to set up passwords to help secure your user accounts and is important to set strong passwords

Operating System Cont � � Also the operating system allows a user to be an administrator which can access all the other accounts The administrator account gives the user security options that will help better secure the computer The administrator also allows the user to access other accounts and add or remove privileges to certain user accounts to prevent them from weakening the computer’s overall security It is also very important to disable any guest accounts that are not being used to prevent them from being compromised

Operating System Cont � � Also important to check your operating systems build in local security and verify that your security options are set appropriately to help better secure your computer Also important to keep your operating system up to date by installing all new patches to prevent your system from being compromised It is important to go into your operating system and shut down any unused or unwanted processes Lastly it is important to have the operating system’s firewalls on and preferences set to ensure protection

Firewalls � � � A firewall is a software or hardware based network security that controls the network traffic It is important that when connected to a network to keep your firewall on at all times Firewalls are very important to someone who always leaves their computer on and connected to their network which leaves the user vulnerable to an attack at any time whether they are sitting behind the computer or not

Types of Firewalls � There are several different types of firewalls few of them are � Packet filtering firewalls � Stateful packet filtering firewalls � Application firewalls � Circuit level firewalls � Dynamic packet filters � Each play different roles in protecting your network from outside attackers

Hardware and Software Firewalls � � The two big types of firewalls are software and hardware Hardware is typically known as network firewalls Hardware firewalls are a defense between your network and your router Some routers also have built in firewalls which can effectively protect several computers that are attached to that router or can strongly protect one computer

Hardware and Software Firewalls Cont � � The advantage to hardware firewalls is that they are separate devices and run on their own operating systems which give an added security But their major flaw is that they cost Software is normally a built in firewall in your operating system which gives added protection to your hardware firewall Most operating systems offer firewalls and it should always be turned on

Weaknesses of Firewalls � � Firewalls do offer a decent amount of protection against attackers but doesn’t guarantee that your computer wont be attacked Also firewalls offer very little protection against viruses that require you to run the software on your computer before they infect your computer But the biggest disadvantage is that since the firewall is on your computer that it is the last line of defense and may not catch all malicious traffic that enters your system But to ensure best protection against all types of attacks it is best to have a antivirus program along with your firewall

Antivirus � � Antivirus is the protection software that is designed to protect your computer from any malicious software For antivirus protection to be fully effective it is important that the program is always running in the background of your computer so that it can prevent and eliminate malicious software that also runs in the background of your computer and usually goes undetected by the user

Antivirus Cont � � � It is very important that your antivirus has the latest update to help it protect against new types of malicious software Also important to purchase a new copy of antivirus protection when your version runs out because your virus protection will continue to work but will not receive updates so it wont be able to defend against newer types of malicious software It may also be a bad thing to run more than one antivirus program on the same system because the programs would conflict with each other making the programs less effective

How Antivirus Works � � Antivirus programs work by scanning through segments of code and look for code that can be linked to code forms of known malicious software or look for similarities in code that might be variations of known malicious software It also takes unknown programs and predicts what they will do by running the program in a sandbox which is a set up security space that allows the file to operate and see if the file performs any malicious actions

Problems with Antivirus � � � Some side effects of antivirus programs is that they tend to slow down your system because they are required to always run on your system Also the prompts may be a little more confusing for people who are computer illiterate and can cause them to choose a wrong option which could leave them vulnerable to an attack People may turn off their antivirus protection because their antivirus gives a false positive detection to a program or file that they are trying to access and wont allow them to run it. So they turn their antivirus off. Then later they could forget to turn their antivirus back on when they are done with the file or program that was blocked leaving them vulnerable to an attack because they have no antivirus protection running

More Problems with Antivirus � � Another big problem is a false negative in which is when a program either tricks the antivirus to think its not a threat or the antivirus judges the program to be safe and allows the program to run on the computer Also the antivirus is located in the kernel level of the operating system and which creates a potential avenue of attack which if the antivirus is targeted specifically it could be detrimental to the computer

Passwords � � � A password is a string of characters used to authenticate a user Very important not to use common words as passwords like names, all numbers or all the same letter, anything someone could easily find out about you like birth dates or house number, or the same password for everything What makes a strong password is its length, complexity, and how unpredictable it is Passwords should be created from random characters consisting of capital and lower case letters, numbers and extra characters and punctuation and should be kept secret It is also important that your password is easy to remember so you don’t have to write it down and also easy to type and don’t have to look at the keyboard to type it Also to make sure they are secure passwords should be changed frequently

Weaknesses � � � Weaknesses to passwords is that they are very unsecure Attackers could use blacklisting which is purposely entering the wrong password in a required number of times which locks the users account Passwords are susceptible to dictionary attacks which will crack any password that is a lower case word no matter how long the word is

More Weaknesses � � Another attack is login spoofing where you are redirected to what looks like another login page where you type your username and password to reconnect to your session. Normally it will tell your password was invalid so that you would retype it so that they can be sure that they have the correct password Lastly the easiest way to obtain the users password is by emailing or calling them and pretending to be a network security officer and would ask the person for verification purposes or that their system has been breached and that they should change their password

Conclusion � There is no best way to protect your computer 100 percent but the use of safe computing coupled with your operating system, firewalls, anti-virus, and secure passwords will provide you the best chance of protecting your computer

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