Securing A Cable Internet Connection
Broadband cable offers inexpensive, high speed Internet access to millions of consumers. Unfortunately you might not be the only one interested in your super fast connection. Since cable Internet access is always on, meaning you don't have to re-connect and authenticate every time you want to use the Internet, your exposure to threats can be greatly increased if you fail to take certain precautions.
With hackers trying to plant viruses on thousands of computers at a time in order to send Denial of Service (DoS) attacks at companies, you don't even have to be singled out. Your computer might just be one of thousands that just happened to have the wrong IP at the wrong time. This is only one example of a very specific type of attack, but we are going to speak about several areas where you can make changes to protect your computer and your connection from many possible threats.
File Sharing
File sharing is used to allow several users access to files on a single computer across a network, or even across the Internet. File sharing utilizes the users PC to store files and serve them to other users on a network. This is called the peer-to-peer model, or P2P. This can be a very useful tool for a small business, or even a home user with more than one computer. The danger is that you open up your files to others that might be looking for a computer with file sharing enabled.
It is possible to set up file sharing where users require a password to access or change files on your computer, and of course this is a great deal safer that not using a password. The safest way to secure your computer is to not use file sharing at all, or if you must set the properties to not allow others to make changes to you files.
Anti-Virus Software
Anti-Virus Software is generally a suite of programs installed on your machine that clean up any existing viruses and put into place provisions that protect your computer from future viruses and other types of malicious software such as adware.
The software scans your files and makes assessments based on a lexicon of know threats that is continuously updated. Norton offers one of the most trusted brands of this type of product, and comes highly recommended in the industry.
Viruses can be particularly dangers to cable Internet users due to the always on aspect of the service. If you leave your computer on, as most users tend to do, then a virus that has been planted on your computer could be activated at any time and used by someone. Anti-Virus software can almost entirely remove this threat.
Spyware
Spyware is often thought of as a virus, and although it is also a part of the family now referred to as Malware, spyware acts differently. Running in the background of your other computer processes spyware will generally not appear to do anything at all. It often spends a great deal of time collecting information on where you are going on the Internet, and the most devious of these programs even log the keystrokes you use. The latter can be the most devastating simply because any usernames or passwords you might use will be recoded and transmitted to the program creator.
Once the program collects the data that it needs, several events might occur. More than likely, your information will be sent to someone somewhere who wants to know where you have been. This may be in order to send you emails on products that you have shown an interest in, or to market to you in some other way. You will have no way of knowing that any information was sent, as this process is completely invisible to the user. Another possibility is the sudden intrusion of pop up ads on your desktop. This used to be very popular before anti-spyware software had any market penetration, but now has become rare. The most well know pop up adware was one for virus protection. The virus would implant itself on your hard drive, then advertise software that you could buy to remove it. This didn't attract many happy customers.
Firewalls
Firewalls are systems put together in order to block access to internal systems from external threats. This means that a firewall can block out people and processes from your computer, and make sure your computer isn't sending out any information without your permission. Firewalls come in two types, software and hardware.
The software firewall tends to be the easiest to set up and configure. WidowsXP comes with a firewall already installed and can be customized by the user to filter out varying degrees of threats. The benefit of the WindowsXP firewall is that is very simple to set up and use. The downside is that it may be too simple if you are running a small business or an intranet that requires more specific permissions. Cable Internet providers tend to recommend using a firewall, and most offer software firewalls for download. Zone Labs Zone Alarm is also a well know product that enjoys a great deal of use across the Internet.
A hardware firewall provides the same type of service as its software counterpart, but tends to be more flexible and offer more advanced options. This firewall is housed in another device such as a gateway, cable modem, or is a stand alone device that rests between your computer and the Internet. Linksys builds firewalls into their routers, and many stand alone hardware firewalls can be purchased.
Wireless Cable Connections
Many cable Internet providers now offer the ability to set up a wireless network within your home. This of course provides you with the ability to have cable Internet access anywhere in your home without running cables to every room. Combined with a laptop computer this offers a great deal of freedom to surf Cable Internet and do business comfortably and easily anywhere in you home, and often even in the surrounding area. This of course also opens up some new security issues.
If your wireless LAN is not secured, anyone can access your network and get on to the Internet, and possibly into your computer. Most wireless gateways offer several ways in which to secure the wireless connection, the most common being the WEP key. WEP stands for Wired Equivalent Privacy, and is a system intended to offer the same confidentiality to wireless Internet transfers that is available to wired Internet transfers.
WEP is still considered to be adequate security for most home connections. Wireless gateways provided by your ISP, as well as off the shelf gateways from Linksys, have the ability to enable WEP capabilities and create keys for more than one computer to access the Internet.