December 2002 — Special Feature
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Blended Threats - A Deadly Duo of Hackers and Mobile Code
- When using e-mail, do not open attachments that are unexpected, even if they come from someone you know. Often, malicious code can be sent from the e-mail account of someone you know even though they aren’t aware of it.
- Never open attachments from unknown sources.
- Run a good anti-virus program and firewall at the desktop. This provides a solid barrier against viruses, hackers and blended threats. It is also critical to keep your virus definitions and firewall rules up to date.
IT Administrators
IT administrators should look at and thoroughly understand the security strategies that are currently in place. Enlisting a comprehensive approach, creating a defensive barrier that is comprised of anti-virus, content filtering, firewall, vulnerability management and intrusion detection measures will make systems extremely difficult and costly for intruders to compromise. All parts of the network must be protected, and there must be a response in place to provide security at the gateway, server and client levels. Some important basic tips include:
Implement strong passwords. Passwords should be at least eight characters in length, comprised of alphanumeric characters and changed regularly.
Keep patches up to date. As explained above, blended threats seek out known vulnerabilities to exploit. Staying up to date with the latest security patches for your operating systems and applications is a crucial measure of protection.
Use data forensics. Create an outline of the policies, procedures and standards for logging, reporting and auditing functions.
Remove unneeded services. All services present some form of exposure because they are listening on a TCP (transmission control protocol) or UDP (user datagram protocol) port, so eliminating unnecessary services diminishes the number of target entry points for intruders.
Employ a comprehensive security solution:
- Anti-virus software and content security solutions to identify and remove threats;
- Firewalls to block threats from entering your network;
- Intrusion detection systems to monitor the network and hosts for improper activity and assist in forensic analysis; and
- Vulnerability assessment tools to ensure that patches are applied, unneeded services are removed and passwords are strong, according to best practices.
