Home network security
This document gives home network users an overview of the security risksand counter measures associated with Internet connectivity, especiallyin the context of “always-on” or broadband access services (suchas cable modems and DSL). However, much of the content is alsorelevant to traditional dial-up users (users who connect to the Internet using a modem).
Computer security is the process of preventing and detecting unauthorized use of your computer. Prevention measures help you tostop unauthorized home network users (also known as "intruders") from accessing any part of your computer system. Detection helps you to determine whether or not someone attempted to break into your system, if they were successful, and what they may have done.
We use computers for everything from banking and investing to shoppingand communicating with others through email or chat programs. Although you may not consider your communications "top secret," you probably donot want strangers reading your email, using your computer to attack othersystems, sending forged email from your computer, or examining personal information stored on your computer (such as financial statements).
Intruders (also referred to as hackers, attackers, or crackers) may not care about your identity. Often they want to gain control of your computer so they can use it to launch attacks on other computer systems.
Having control of your computer gives them the ability to hide their true location as they launch attacks, often against high-profile compute rsystems such as government or financial systems. Even if you have a computer connected to the Internet only to play the latest games or to send emailto friends and family, your computer may be a target.
Intruders may be able to watch all your actions on the computer, orcause damage to your computer by reformatting your hard drive or changing your data.
Unfortunately, intruders are always discovering new vulnerabilities (informally called "holes") to exploit in computer software. The complexity of software makes it increasingly difficult to thoroughly test the security of computer systems.
When holes are discovered, computer vendors will usually develop patches to address the problem(s). However, it is up to you, the user, toobtain and install the patches, or correctly configure the software tooperate more securely. Most of the incident reports of computerbreak-ins received at the CERT/CC could have been prevented if system administrators and home users kept their computers up-to-date with patchesand security fixes.
Also, some software applications have default settings that allow other home network users to access your computer unless you change the settings to be more secure. Examples include chat programs that let outsiders execute commands on your computer or web browsers that could allow someone to place harmful programson your computer that run when you click on them.
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