Critical Cybersecurity Steps for You to Take

One of the largest challenges we are faced with on the Internet is cyber attacks.

Threats to our economy, national security, online communities, and families depend on how effective we are at protecting ourselves from cyber attacks from Internet predators. Here are a few steps that will improve your online security.

First, make sure you have anti-virus software and firewalls configured properly. Make sure they are updated regularly, as well. Everyday new threats are discovered, so keeping you software up-to-date and current makes it easier to protect you and your family, or business from attacks. Most anti-virus and firewall programs have automatic updates available for you to configure.

Another safety precaution technique is to update your operating system and vital program software. These software updates provide the latest protection against malicious attacks. Again, most of these critical software programs have automatic updates available for you to turn on.

Remember to back up your important files. Copy them onto removable discs you can store in a safe place, preferable at another location other than where your computer is at.

Know Who You're Dealing With

In all endeavors, it's also important for you to know what you're getting into, and who you're dealing-especially on the Internet. You cannot judge someone's character or motives by simply looking at a profile picture, MLM blog, or website. Many scammers online impersonate legitimate MLM, affiliate, and home-based businesses when, in fact, they have ulterior motives. Make sure you do some research prior to making any purchases of products or services from individuals or businesses on the Internet.

Finally, protect your passwords-keep them in a secure place. Best practices suggest using longer passwords which include letters and symbols. Every ninety days change your password and avoid using common words. Use different passwords for each of your online accounts.

If you suspect someone is hacking your computer, contact your Internet Service Provider and contact the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the following link: http://www.ic3.gov

When you're shopping, either online, or offline, if someone takes advantage of your through an Internet auction, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission.

On social networking sites, it's important to trust your instincts and advise your children to trust theirs, as well. If you or your children feel uncomfortable, or feel threatened by someone online, encourage your children to tell you. Pass the information onto the police and the social networking site.

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Critical Linux Flaws

Last week three new vulnerabilities were announced by Polish security firm iSec Security Research in the latest Linux kernel which could allow an attacker to elevate their privileges on the machine and execute programs as the root administrator.

These are just the latest in a series of serious or critical security vulnerabilities discovered in Linux over the past few months. The board room at Microsoft is probably getting some amusement, or at least feeling some relief, from the irony that open source is supposed to be more secure and yet these critical flaws continue to be found.

It misses the mark though in my opinion to claim that open source software is more secure by default. For starters, I believe that the software is only as secure as the user or administrator who configures and maintains it. Although some may argue that Linux is more secure out of the box, a clueless Linux user is just as insecure as a clueless Microsoft Windows user.

The other aspect of it is that the developers are still human. Out of the thousands and millions of line of code that make up an operating system it seems fair to say that something might get missed and eventually a vulnerability will be discovered.

Therein lies the difference between open-source and proprietary. Microsoft was notified by EEye Digital Security about the flaws with their implementation of ASN.1 eight months before they finally announced the vulnerability publicly and released a patch. Those were eight months during which the bad guys could have discovered and exploited the flaw.

Open source on the other hand tends to get patched and updated much faster. There are so many developers with access to the source code that once a flaw or vulnerability is discovered and announced a patch or update is released as quickly as possible. Linux is fallible, but the open source community seems to react much quicker to issues as they arise and respond with the appropriate updates much quicker rather than trying to bury the existence of the vulnerability until they get around to dealing with it.

That said, Linux users should be aware of these new vulnerabilities and make sure they stay informed of the latest patches and updates from their respective Linux vendors. One caveat with these flaws is that they are not exploitable remotely. That means that to attack the system using these vulnerabilities requires the attacker to have physical access to the machine.

Many security experts agree that once an attacker has physical access to a computer the gloves are off and almost any security can be eventually bypassed. It is the remotely exploited vulnerabilities- flaws that can be attacked from systems far away or outside of the local network- that present the most danger.

For more information check out the detailed vulnerability descriptions from iSec Security Research to the right of this article.

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