Cyber Security Myths and Tips

[Tater]

Proxies only protect your ip if they don't use the xforwarded tag in the header. Here's a good place to get a list of current free proxies you may have to search around to find one that is truly anonymous. There are proxy checker apps available on the interweb search google to find one.

 

[ugmjfarmer]

I use a hardware firewall. Its annoying from the outside because I VNC alot but dont want to open up remote config. But its nice and secure.

 

[New_2_Chronic]

ugmjfarmer

Hardware firewalls IMO are better. The Hardware Firewall acts on a different layer of the OSI Networking model. The software firewalls are more easily manipulated.

VNC can be secured pretty good through your firewall. I wouldnt reccomend the Free version though. Purchase the Enterprise Edition License and use "Secured Control" then youd be pretty covered.

Opening Ports - If you are using a secure version of VNC, such as VNC Enterprise Edition, you can simply configure your firewall to permit traffic on the port(s) used by the server. If your VNC server is configured to accept connections on VNC Display Number N (equivalent to Port Number 5900+N), then port 5900+N must be configured to be allowed through the firewall. To allow the Java VNC Viewer to be served through the firewall, port 5800+<N> must also be allowed through, or you must configure your VNC server to use the same port for both the VNC and Java Viewer connections

VNC uses HIGH Ports that are less likely to be scanned.... Hackers tend to target port 1024 and below.

 

[New_2_Chronic]

ZONE Alarm Suite:

ZA IMO is an very good security suite. I have used ZA in the past for personal and client uses and it definately does the job. It is not expensive and the protection you get with ZA is wort it.

Those with Router\Firewall combinations can use IP masking to mask your external IP address. If your firewall does not have this option and you would like to upgrade I would reccomend choosing one with this option. This will mask your outside identity by not returning requests on your IP. The cisco firewall I have allows me to show the wrong IP....1.1.1.1 so my firewall does answer,,,, it just answers on a spoofed IP.

On most firewalls my guess would be you can find that in the advanced options.

 

[Dozingoffaroundthecorner]

They can get your IP from your e-mail. Just like you have proxy servers there are some people who have IP scanners.

All computer programming in the United States is regulated by the U.S. government. There is a whole section of laws dedicated to the internet and computer systems hence the huge lawsuit against Bill Gates for alleged "monopoly". Anyways the internet is not as anonymous as people like to think. Just because you cannot be seen or heard does not mean your information is not available. Just like if I call the operator and ask her about a phone number she can tell me who you are or if I have your address then it is even easier to find out. You could be unlisted but then if somebody wanted to know more they could look through your mailbox or P.O. box. Some people are just messed up like that. The best thing you can do is be aware and do whatever you can to protect yourself from low life predators.

 

[Dozingoffaroundthecorner]

The proxy server programs are good against the average joe hacker. The average joe hacker is much more of a concern than the feds because they will mess with your credit card and bank accounts, Paypal, etc. and anything they can get into. I worry more about the average slimeball than the big brother bully because the average joe could be anyone.

 

[Tater]

Dozing I think you might be confused about the topic at hand its easy to become so with all of the misinformation floating around. proxy server's != proxy server program's and if the proxy is truly anonymous then it is next to impossible to track the connection back to you. This would mean that your ip and referer information isn't being forwarded by the proxy and that the proxy also does not keep connection logs. The internet is NOT regulated by anyone. Net Neutrality (if you are really interested in it you can look it up on google) is such a big issue among the tech scene right now. And because the internet is world wide and decentralized it would be impossible to regulate it unless you had total global collaboration and if that happened you would always be free to set up your own internet if you really choose to and had the resources. Governments have the power to black out certain sites and what not if they are in control of ALL of the countries back bones (do some reading about the great firewall of china) but for those in the know these measures are easily circumvented through the use of proxies and projects like the tor network. Please unless you truly understand what you are talking about all you are doing is further clouding the issue. Lets try to keep this as factual as possible.

 

[New_2_Chronic]

Thanks Tater....

Im am here to disspell all of the rumors out there with factual IT industry standards.

There are many different ways to secure yourself on the Net. Each way has at least 10 different solutions. To go into pros and cons about every product out there would distract from the focus of this thread.

You just have to find the solution that achieves your desired results. You budget has alot to do with your design. Just remember cheaper doesnt mean worse!

There are many FREE ways to secure yourself using Open Source Applications, ie..Linux, Unix, FreeBSD, Freeware applications. All of these are available for free downlods on the internet. There is a learning curve to these though that may not work for everyone.

Best Buy, Office Depot, Wal mart, Target, all have computer software ranging from cheap to more expensive solutions. Just compare a few different products, features, price, subscription costs....ect,,,

Compare it to buying a car...... You have a choice for your solution.

1. The Prius (cheapest) - this solution is a firewall, antivirus and spyware protection software using Price only as a determining factor for your purchase. This works, however you wont have the safety rating of your next choice

2. The SUV (middle ground) - this solutin can cost a little more... You compare several different products side by side so you can compare the bells and whistles. This is your "middle of the road option"....Better safety, will do what you want and give you peace of mind.

3. The Ferrarri (most costly)- This is the "TOP OF THE LINE" option for your solution. You do not consider price at all in this solution. You know what you want and whatever it costs that what you will pay. You choose your products based on features, benifits, and ease of use....This solution is for the ULTRA paranoid.....

Think of your purchase in this way. What will you get in return? this is commonly referred to as ROI (Return on Investment). Sometimes this can be measured in how much actual money it will save you over a given period of time, say 3 years. Other times it is measured in Non Tangible items. These can be such thing as, cost savings of not having to go through an identity Theft scenerio if your information is comprimised. It can also be "Peace of mind".

How much is that worth to you? Getting on your computer without even a thought of someone getting your valuable information....banking, Investments, Logins and passwords to all your account.....Or you may be someone that this is not an issue because there is nothing on your computer that you would not want someone to have.

All things to consider when developing your security solution.

More to follow.....Chronic Out!

 

[Dozingoffaroundthecorner]

Dozing I think you might be confused about the topic at hand its easy to become so with all of the misinformation floating around. proxy server's != proxy server program's and if the proxy is truly anonymous then it is next to impossible to track the connection back to you. This would mean that your ip and referer information isn't being forwarded by the proxy and that the proxy also does not keep connection logs. The internet is NOT regulated by anyone. Net Neutrality (if you are really interested in it you can look it up on google) is such a big issue among the tech scene right now. And because the internet is world wide and decentralized it would be impossible to regulate it unless you had total global collaboration and if that happened you would always be free to set up your own internet if you really choose to and had the resources. Governments have the power to black out certain sites and what not if they are in control of ALL of the countries back bones (do some reading about the great firewall of china) but for those in the know these measures are easily circumvented through the use of proxies and projects like the tor network. Please unless you truly understand what you are talking about all you are doing is further clouding the issue. Lets try to keep this as factual as possible.

Your IP address is still the same. The proxy server scrambles scanners so that it appears you have another IP address. The fact is you still have your original IP address and the proxy only covers it or masks it to make it look like you have another. It's like going to a costume ball of masks but somebody will always know who you really are because you never know the man you bought the mask from may be there and remember which one he sold you.

The government has an entire section of people that specialize in the internet and they have specific laws and guidelines regarding the internet. If the internet was completely neutral there would not be arrests of child predators and obvious law breaking individuals. You are right though they would need absolute collaboration which they do have for the most part. There are some people who know how to get by that but some of them are the good guys and some are the bad.

They have to be able to implicate you in the act of breaking the law. They have to have evidence and witnesses. Anyone can go online and say that they will kill somebody or that they will steal. Until they are caught with the goods or standing above the body full of wounds then they are not guilty. Anyone can go online and say they grow pot but until they can link the two together and see the garden or catch you in the act then it is all up in the air. There has to be a trail that leads to the X that marks the spot or there is no bounty.

 

[New_2_Chronic]

The government has an entire section of people that specialize in the internet and they have specific laws and guidelines regarding the internet. If the internet was completely neutral there would not be arrests of child predators and obvious law breaking individuals. You are right though they would need absolute collaboration which they do have for the most part. There are some people who know how to get by that but some of them are the good guys and some are the bad.

You are misinformed although it looks like you have the right idea.

The arrests are the result of people freely using the internet for criminal intents. The point is that you totally free to go wherever you want, post whatever you want, and do whatever you want. As I pointed out earlier YOU ARE STILL ACCOUNTABLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS. Simply using the internet and it being free does not make you immune from state and federal laws.

The fact that they use internet records for prosecutions only echos the fact that you are free to do what you want on the internet, but still accountable.

IMO if the Internet were regulated by a global body it would be a mess of epic proportions,,,, IMO everyone would want to be "Big Chief"....Look at the UN....Same principle.

 

[Dozingoffaroundthecorner]

The law extends to every activity in a nation. There are no exceptions and there will always be a sector for each outlet of activity. Hence the DEA or Special Task Force, SWAT, etc. and there are attorneys for business, criminal defense, etc. There are many branches on a tree but one trunk.

 

[Tater]

Your IP address is still the same. The proxy server scrambles scanners so that it appears you have another IP address. The fact is you still have your original IP address and the proxy only covers it or masks it to make it look like you have another. It's like going to a costume ball of masks but somebody will always know who you really are because you never know the man you bought the mask from may be there and remember which one he sold you.

Proxy servers do not scramble scanners they simply forward packets. I already explained about the xforwarded header and what not. Trust me I have a very good understanding of proxy servers, socks servers, etc etc etc.

The government has an entire section of people that specialize in the internet and they have specific laws and guidelines regarding the internet. If the internet was completely neutral there would not be arrests of child predators and obvious law breaking individuals. You are right though they would need absolute collaboration which they do have for the most part. There are some people who know how to get by that but some of them are the good guys and some are the bad.

That is not the same as regulating the internet. They simply scan the internet for illegal activities that are taking place in THEIR country.

They have to be able to implicate you in the act of breaking the law. They have to have evidence and witnesses. Anyone can go online and say that they will kill somebody or that they will steal. Until they are caught with the goods or standing above the body full of wounds then they are not guilty. Anyone can go online and say they grow pot but until they can link the two together and see the garden or catch you in the act then it is all up in the air. There has to be a trail that leads to the X that marks the spot or there is no bounty.

This has nothing to do with the conversation.

I will gladly hand out my ip to you. It wouldn't do you any good. You couldn't ping my machine and if I ran my connection through an ANONYMOUS proxy or the OnionTor network it would become even more useless as my IP would never even be seen by the outside world.

Anywho not trying to threadjack here. Thanks for the post New_2_Chronic I'm sure it helped a few folks here on the forums. And you are right the depth of the subject and the different options available way outside the scope of your original post. Thanks for keeping us all on topic. Nice thread.

 

[Dozingoffaroundthecorner]

When you pull up your proxy server it says;

Actual IP - (which is your IP address)
IP that everyone else sees - (the IP that is masking yours)

It may look different or you may have some extravagant program but that is basically the layout. Because they are truthful for the most part and they tell you that they make it appear that you have another IP but in fact you still have your IP address.

They regulate all of the computer programming in the nation. Every computer program has to be licensed and copyrighted if you want to go through mass sales. In other words if you are a part of capitalism then you must agree to the terms. There are laws for every business and every network and the law is not exempt from any person even if somebody tries to convince you otherwise it is not logical for someone to think that if they are a citizen of a nation that they are not to abide to the guidelines of the place they have decided to contribute their existence.

I just told you what has been known to get a lot of people in trouble so if that is not part of the conversation you seek then whatever.....not my problem! You can think whatever you want to but in the famous words of the Butthole Surfers "You never know just how you look through other people's eyes". This is going nowhere and I wish you all the best with your cyber adventures and purchases.

 

[Tater]

If you didn't still have your IP address the proxy server would have any idea of where to forward the packets. Why are you arguing this, have you ever studied network topology? I have. Have you ever worked in the IT field? I have. Do you have any published security vulnerabilities? I do. Man seriously if you want to sit here and argue the finer points of Cyber Law, packet injection, sql injection, privilege escalation, vulnerability discovery, packet phuzzing or any of the like then please start the conversation with something that is A) factual and B) well informed and I will gladly debate with you.

They regulate all of the computer programming in the nation. Every computer program has to be licensed and copyrighted if you want to go through mass sales. In other words if you are a part of capitalism then you must agree to the terms. There are laws for every business and every network and the law is not exempt from any person even if somebody tries to convince you otherwise it is not logical for someone to think that if they are a citizen of a nation that they are not to abide to the guidelines of the place they have decided to contribute their existence.

Uhhhh what? Ever hear of linux, bsd, the GPL, GNU LGPL, BSDL, and its many variants? What are you talking about? And as far as the laws of your country it has nothing to do with the internet being regulated and you being regulated. You are reiterating what New_2_Chronic has said twice. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR ACTIONS!!!! That means if beastiality is illegal where you live don't download the video named FarmerScrewsChickenWhileWifeWatch's.avi or you could get into trouble with YOUR government. But if its legal where I am I'm free to download and *** away with no ill consequences. The same information is available to both of us BUT you could face legal ramifications for accessing it. Do you see the difference. If the internet was regulated you would not be able, to see, access, modify, or download that data. To you it wouldn't exist. But because the internet is NOT regulated you can access that data and it is you who will face the legal ramifications if caught.

I'm not trying to berate you but you are forcing the issue even after being presented with facts. Not hearsay or opinions. What you posted was nonfactual and incorrect, this thread is about dispelling myths not propagating them.

 

[New_2_Chronic]

First off.......Tater......

FarmerScrewsChickenWhileWifeWatch's.avi

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :holysheep:

thats freakin funny man........you wouldnt by any chance have a download of that? Im well prepared to accept the consequences,,,,,:hubba:

Second Off
Gotta love IT Guys.....

Dozing, your both right and wrong....Let me explain....

A Proxy server is not a false sence of security IMO because the Proxy serves its clients requests ON BEHALF of the client. The destination does not know about the client. It thinks that the proxy IS the client.

There is however one achiles tendon of the Proxy, that is the traffic between the client and the Proxy itself. That traffic is sent freely and unencrypted. It is therefore possible, as has been demonstrated, for a malicious proxy server to record everything sent to the proxy: including unencrypted logins and passwords.

The odds of this happening is slim to none, and to the normal joe I would say its safe to use.

In corporate environments it is common practice to block traffic coming from anonymizing Proxy Servers.

And for the record, I do not use proxys myself. I have a firewall, and intrusion detection tools. I am not that paranoid about the sites im surfing (Tater should be but im not)...even without the IDS i would still be confident that yes my IP may be out there but it wont do an average joe, or LEO any good..... and if a Black Hat Hacker wants to get me then there is really nothing I can do about it anyway so let em have it.....

 

[New_2_Chronic]

I am going to give you an overview of Metadata, and how it applies to security. Put simply Metadata is Data within Data. Every form of digital data has MetaData associated with it.

Microsoft Office files for instance include metadata beyond their printable content, such as the original author's name, the creation date of the document, and the amount of time spent editing it.

Unintentional disclosure can be awkward or even, in professional practices requiring confidentiality, raise malpractice concerns. For instance emailing a file that has Metadata associated with it will give the reviever more information than is actually visible to you.

Some of Microsoft Office document's metadata can be seen by clicking File then Properties from the program's menu. Other metadata is not visible except through external analysis of a file, such as is done in forensics.

The author of the Microsoft Word-based Melissa computer virus in 1999 was caught due to Word metadata that uniquely identified the computer used to create the original infected document.

Examples of Metadata
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/
Camera

In the context of a camera, where the data is the photographic image, metadata would typically include the date the photo was taken and details of the camera settings (lens, focal length, aperture, shutter timing, white balance, etc.).
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/
Digital Music Player

On a digital portable music player, the album names, song titles and album art embedded in the music files are used to generate the artist and song listings, and are considered the metadata.
http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/
Information system (Computer)

In the context of an computer, where the data is the content of the computer files, metadata about an individual data item would typically include the name of the field and its length. Metadata about a collection of data items, a computer file, might typically include the name of the file, the type of file and the name of the data administrator.

If you would like to add another security level and strip Metadata from your files that you share and email with others or post to the internet then get a metadata scrubber. This tool will remove all MetaData from any files prior to leaving your computer. This one is an example for scrubbing all microsoft office files.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=144e54ed-d43e-42ca-bc7b-5446d34e5360&displaylang=en

More to Follow.....Chronic Out!


http://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/

 

[Dozingoffaroundthecorner]

Okay this has already been discussed in detail. Here is the thread and you can see that everything I wrote was repetitive anyways which I found out about twenty seconds ago;

hxxp://www.marijuanapassion.com/forum/showthread.php?t=23690&page=2

I'm not arguing about this. It's not going to go anywhere. I just told you what other people know and write about all over the internet.

If you are responsible for your actions then what makes you think you are exempt from the law? It's almost as if you are trying to convince yourself otherwise to feel secure but that really has nothing to do with me. You can think whatever you want to because it really does not concern me. I am responsible for my actions LOL!

There is a fine line between the act and hearsay. You can kid around and say "I am going to screw that chicken" but until you do then it is not the act which is illegal because what you say is hearsay. That's why dirty crap can float around the internet. I mean I already wrote that.

This is really stupid! I'm out!

 

[Il Stugots]

thanks for the info.. i did that stat -n thing in the command window and found like 4 ip addresses. i have 2 computers so the other 2 must be someone else

 

[New_2_Chronic]

I would run a spyware/adware program and clean all that stuff off. then Virus Scan until clean. Then do it again. If you still have some wierd IP's then do this.

start
run
cmd

black box appears
Inside of Black Box type

tracert (ip Address) without the brackets

this will trace the hops to the IP address in question. If there is only one hop its something local on your computer or network inside your house, if you see additional hops then its someone else connected to you....

 

[Fadeux]

New 2 Chronic,

I can't thank you enough for the great info you've posted. As your IT expertise is invaluable to those of us "in the dark." However, I dont know what stock I put in your legal advice, so you should get a law degree and then fill us in on that. lol! Have a spare 8 years and $500 grand to help out you fellow MP fans?

Regardless, you do help prove a theory I have had for quite some time. The internet will be the last salvation of mankind. The government simply moves too slow to keep up with it, and when they shut one thing down, a dozen more pop up. I can log on, and see a REAL youtube video from an iraqi citizen. I can find out what its like to live in fiji, from a real perspective.

Of course, the flip side of this, there is a lot of crap on the net, and you have to be willing to be skeptical of most of the info you find on here. But its a true form of pure global communication. There's a lot of bad stuff on here, but thats what you get with freedom. Great info in some places and jaggoffs trying to sell you cheap viagra in others.

Keep the great info coming! Not just you but everyone. The internet is filled with falsehoods, but as long as we keep seeking the truth, this place will be our greatest asset!