Transcript Securing a Host Computer

By Kyle Bickel


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



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




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




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



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

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




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




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




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 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



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


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



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


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






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 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


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 you 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

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









Host Based Security Best Practices." Department of Computer Science
Computing Guide. Princeton University Computer Science Department,
2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
https://csguide.cs.princeton.edu/security/host?destination=node/182
"The University of Texas at Austin." Securing Your Host. The University of
Texas at Austin, 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
https://www.cs.utexas.edu/facilities/documentation/secure-hosts
"Security Tip." Understanding Firewalls. Department of Homeland
Security, 06 Feb. 2013. Web. 11 Nov. 2013. http://www.uscert.gov/ncas/tips/ST04-004
"Antivirus Software." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 25 Oct. 2013.
Web. 11 Nov. 2013. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivirus_software
Kessler, Gary C. "Passwords —
Strengths and Weaknesses." Passwords —
Strengths and Weaknesses. Auerbach, Jan. 1996. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
http://www.garykessler.net/library/password.html
http://www.vicomsoft.com/images/learningcenter/firewalls/firewalldiagram1.gif
http://res1.windows.microsoft.com/resbox/en/windows%207/main/0a
8efee3-a2ca-4efe-a56e-9316f0edd084_0.jpg
http://cdn3.techlila.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/virus-scan.jpg
http://www.passcape.com/images/dictionary_attack.png