There are many pieces to intrusion prevention and like a puzzle, you must put them all together before you start surfing the net; miss just one piece and you’ve left yourself wide open to attack!

This is what you need to help prevent intrusions including the web security services you should use on a regular schedule.

For those of you that don’t want to read all the details and are ready to jump right into the web security audit, then follow the five steps below.

• Take the Firewall Test, it’s fast and very accurate.
• Take the Anonymous Surfing and privacy test.
• Test the Intrusion Prevention Software.
• Take the Popup Test.

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An IDS or Intrusion Detection System is a system that detects the misuse of network or computer resources. It uses a number of sensors to detect intrusions. Some of these may be the following: a sensor to monitor TCP connection requests, log file monitors, or file integrity checkers.

The IDS system collects data from its sensors and analyzes this data to alert the administrator if there is malicious activity on the network. It is commonly divided into NIDS (Network Intrusion Detection Systems) and HIDS (Host Intrusion Detection Systems). Newer NIDS also attempt to act as NIPS (Network Intrusion Prevention Systems). An example of an excellent open source Network Intrusion Detection System is SNORT

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Accounting refers to the tracking of the consumption of network resources by users. This information may be used for management, planning, billing, or other purposes. Real-time accounting refers to accounting information that is delivered concurrently with the consumption of the resources. Batch accounting refers to accounting information that is saved until it is delivered at a later time. Typical information that is gathered in accounting is the identity of the user, the nature of the service delivered.

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Authorization is the granting of specific types of privileges or barring privileges to an device or a user based on their previous authentication, what privileges they are requesting, and the current system state. This may be based on restrictions, for example time-of-day restrictions, or physical location restrictions, or restrictions against multiple logins by the same user. Most of the time the granting of a privilege constitutes the ability to use a certain type of service. Examples of types of service include, but are not limited to: IP address filtering, address assignment, route assignment, QoS/differential services, bandwidth control/traffic management, compulsory tunneling to a specific endpoint, and encryption.

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The AAA Protocol (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) is a model designed to make computers secure.

Authentication is proving who you are. It refers to the process of establishing the digital identity of one entity to another entity (a user, client, computer, etc. to a server or computer). It is traditionally accomplished by using passwords but can include two factor authentication, one-time tokens, digital certificate, phone numbers, and biometrics. This comes before authorization because the entity’s identity must be checked before it is allowed access to the system.

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Internet Security Technologies : Firewall

A firewall is an application that allows the user to control and filter packets flowing in and out of the network. Firewalls effectively block probes like ping, operating system fingerprinting, port scans and other types of intrusions. Many companies offer free firewall for personal use only.

A firewall may be software or hardware. A firewall is at the entry point of the network it protects. The most basic firewall performs packet filtering. In packet filtering, the firewall is the first program that receives and handles incoming network traffic and the last to handle outgoing traffic. The policy of filtering the packets may be based on allowing or disallowing packets based on:

• source IP address
• destination port
• protocol

Circuit Relay or Circuit Level Gateway provides additional security. This operates on the Transport Layer. This firewall also determines whether the connection between both ends is valid according to a set of configurable rules. It then opens a session and permits traffic from the allowed source for a limited time period.

Application level gateway acts as a proxy for applications. It performs all data exchanges with the remote system on behalf of the applications. It also allows or disallows network traffic according to specific rules. This is the most secure type of firewall.

Source

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SSL (Secure Socket Layer) :

Netscape Communications Corporation developed SSL for providing security and privacy over the Internet. The protocol supports server and client authentication. Since the protocol is application-independent, it allows other protocols like HTTP, FTP, and Telnet to be transparently layered on it. An Secure Socket Layer (SSL)-enhanced browser encrypts the data sent from the browser to the server. SSL uses encryption and certificates to authenticate websites and web users.

Ssh (Secure Shell) :

Ssh is a program used to:
1. log into another computer over the network
2. execute commands in a remote system
3. move files from one system to another

Ssh provides:
1. strong authentication and secure communication over unsecured channels
2. secure connections and secure forwarding of arbitrary TCP connections
3. provides encrypted communication
4. Ssh is proposed as an alternative to the traditional BSD ‘r’ commands-rlogin, rsh, and rcp. It replaces Telnet. The free version of the SSH protocol suite can be downloaded from http://www.openssh.com/.

Source

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Internet Security Technologies : Encryption

Encryption is the process of rendering data unreadable for snoopers. The designated receiver must have the correct key to decrypt the data. Hackers can intercept data over the network by eavesdropping, tampering, or impersonation. The strength of the encryption depends on the key length.

An encryption system can be of two types: public or private. In public key encryption, a pair of keys called the public key and the private key is used. The public key can be given to anyone and the sender uses it to encrypt the message. The receiver then uses his private key to decrypt the message. The private key is obviously not revealed. In private key encryption, the same key is used to encrypt and decrypt the data. The private key must be sent to the receiver through a secure connection.

Source

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SharePoint Server 2010, without doubt, is a bunch of exciting features and options, some of which were not available in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2007. And one of the features that really enthuses me in SharePoint 2010 is the Logging Database feature. Logging Database, named as WSS_Logging, helps aggregate logging data or information from the server farm into one central location. SharePoint aggregates all of the raw logging data accumulated in the text files under the 14 hive and imports it into this wonderful logging database. This is the only database in SharePoint that Microsoft will be happy to let the developers directly read, query and build reports against it. For someone who spends time in front of customers helping them to maintain a healthy and stable farm, logging database will be a constructive app in SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint Foundation.

The logging database by default contains the following information from all servers within the farm and it is fully supported to query this database directly.

• ULS Logs
• Event Logs
• Selected Performance Monitor Counters:
o % Processor Time
o Memory Available Megabytes
o Avg. Disk Queue Length
o Process Private Bytes (OWSTIMER and all instances of w3wp)
• Blocking SQL Queries
• SQL DMV Queries
• Feature Usage
• A host of information on search crawling and querying
• Inventory of all site collections
• Timer job usage

The Logging Database in SharePoint Server is one of the many new concepts that will make the life of many SharePoint administrators quite a bit more enjoyable. So catch up on this soon! There is a lot of juice in the SharePoint family of products including Server 2010, SharePoint Foundation, SharePoint Server 2007, and associated free SharePoint templates!

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5. Swedish Urology Group — Urine Trouble!
Victims: “Hundreds”
Class Action Outrage Scale: 1 out of 10 lawyers

Doctors lost three hard drives containing patients’ personal information, and we mean personal!

4. The Nature Conservancy — Think of It as Recycled Data
Victims: 14,000
Class Action Outrage Scale: 9 out of 10 lawyers

Someone at the Conservancy was thinking locally but acting globally by apparently visiting a website of questionable provenance. The site was poisoned with malware. Soon, malicious hackers were clear-cutting names, home addresses, birthdates, Social Security numbers of employees and their dependents, and, yes, direct deposit bank account numbers. Let’s hope there’s been a climate change in the group’s security department.

3. TSA, Part II – Still Doing DHS Proud!
Victims: 100,000
Class Action Outrage Scale: 3 out of 10 lawyers

Thieves stole a computer hard drive with the names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth and bank account and routing information of current and former employees, including federal air marshals. Don’t worry, though. How easy could it be to pose as an air marshal with only that information?

2. Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs — One Regrets the Error
Victims: 25 million
Class Action Outrage Scale: 10 out of 10 lawyers

Two CDs containing personal data on about 7 million families went missing in the mail, and the HMRC chancellor resigned. Frankly, we included it just so we could quote sentences like: “The chancellor seeks the advice of the Serious Organised Crime Agency,” and “Mr Cable said he sincerely hoped the discs would not fall into the hands of ‘the criminal fraternity,’” and “Police have visited London rubbish tips in their hunt for missing computer discs.” Makes the worst breach in Britain’s history sound kind of lovely.

1. TJX — ’Sorry About That. Here’s a Gift Card. Come Back Soon for our Sale!’
Victims: Millions of bargain shoppers worldwide
Class Action Outrage Scale: 8 out of 10 lawyers

No breach got more ink this year than TJX’s, which involved some, OK, tens of millions, OK, 50 million, all right all right around 100 million credit and debit card records. Priceless moments included TJX’s defense in press accounts that “our security was comparable to many other major retailers” and the portion of TJX’s proposed settlement with consumers in which the company would hold a three-day “Customer Appreciation Sale” and give some customers $30 store vouchers. (Sorry about the e. coli in the meat in our store; here’s a gift card to buy more meat in our store). After consumer advocates raised a stink, the vouchers were changed to $15 checks. Sad as the whole episode was for consumers, TJX’s stock has remained healthy. Don’t you just love a bargain?

via [CSOOnline]

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