How Secure Is Your Internet Connection?
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It is comical how many people figure if they are using an anti-virus along with a router using some sort of encryption like WEP/WPA, that they must be bullet proof to the world. Heck, even using a firewall, while great at protecting the files on the hard drive, leaves your passing data going over the Internet wide open to interception.
This is even more so a problem when you are sitting there at a coffee shop, surfing away, doing a little shopping and chatting about your latest business ideas over an open IM connection. This makes you a moving target.
Today I will list some suggestions I have for minimizing any security risks when using wireless or wired Internet.
- If you are dealing with super-sensitive data (lawyers, doctors, rocket scientist, etc), considering keeping the PC containing this data off the public grid. This means no Internet connection whatsoever. Yeah, its a bit extreme, but it is also fantastic when bundled with a no “sharable” media (Flash drives, CDs with files to be executed, etc) policy to boot and if connected to a closed network, provides read only access.
- Get to know your software firewall. Router’s are great…to an extent. But using the Windows firewall or ZoneAlarm on Windows systems, OS X firewall on a Mac or IPTables in Linux will give you an extra layer of security for your system. Ubuntu users might want to take use of their UFW to a GUI level with Gufw.
- When the data being transmitted is of concern, encrypt it. This means encrypting your email and just using a good VPN solution. For a truly cross platform VPN solution at the right price, I like personalVPN from WiTopia. They provide Linux support, but you must contact support(at witopia.net after purchase for instructions.
- Double check those security certificates! Just because you are looking at “https” does not mean something is being spoofed along the way.
Do you have other tips that you might add to this list? Well don’t hold back! Hit the comments and share them with the rest of the Lockergnome community.
One Comment
Kimo
August 8th, 2008
at 11:58am
Why not purchase a copy of Agnitum’s Outpost Security Suite and be done with having to find a firewall, virus scanner, anti-spam, anti-junk everything….. Wouldn’t you like the best anti-leak firewall on the market that has a small footprint? An anti-malware scanner that is fast and reliable? Updates that only take only a few minutes (even on dialup)? Why put up with bloated software like Norton’s “Anything” when you get real protection that is FAST and Reliable!
I run nothing but this program and am impressed!