Attacking my Computer
On one random day recently a small computer that I maintain at work for some remote access received 1088 attempts to log on with 602 different usernames. This is not a particularly special machine, it’s address is not known or linked to from anywhere, it’s not large nor does it carry many logins. It is a smaller unremarkable computer in a small and lower-profile company. Important to the few people who use it but that’s all.
This isn’t unusual. It’s a bit of a slow day perhaps. There are also at least several hundred attacks on other services too, like attempts at using FTP. No matter, most services are turned off (as we don’t use them), and there are protections on logins and other services that I won’t fully detail here.
High profile services like Twitter, Facebook, etc will receive many more hack attempts naturally. Orders of magnitude more. In fact they were recently both unreachable due to a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack from a botnet probably. There’s a whole specialty of security for computers and IT networks now. This is not my field. I like to write software and security can be more admin-related. Besides, in my thinking at least, security work requires a level of paranoia which I don’t want to develop. Fortunatly, others feel differently.
A botnet is a collection of compromised computers that can all be directed to bombard a target site - Twitter perhaps - with requests over and over again. If your computer is part of a botnet, a zombie, you notice it a bit slow, but the cumulative effect of all those requests funneling in on the target is overwhelming.
All those attempts on that computer at work were automated attempts at making it part of a botnet. Something I don’t want to be part of. A permanently-connected home computer (DSL or FIOS perhaps) could have the same level of attacks. Make your passwords good, and turn off network services you don’t need. Avoid being a zombie in a botnet yourself.
That work machine is running linux, if you’re running Windows (and according to my web statistics you probably are), you’ve got a bigger problem. Windows has as number of services that are defaulted on, and a few that can’t be turned off. (That’s one of the reasons I don’t like Windows.) You will require a firewall in your DSL modem, fortunately, most have them. Configure it to only allow just what you need and no more.