Product Reviews
Fab 5
An intrepid systems engineer divulges his most-loved
Windows utilities. (A guy could get sentimental about
this stuff.) Should these programs be in your toolbox?
- By Chip Andrews
- 11/01/2000
We all know that a broadband Internet connection is where
it’s at right now. But there’s a problem: That broadband
connection means you’re exposed to the Internet 24 hours
a day. Hackers, spammers, and other unscrupulous Internet
denizens are just waiting in line to kick your “online
butt” and then brag about it to their friends. Enter BlackICE
Defender, a personal firewall and intrusion-detection
system.
There are several free personal firewall products available,
so why do I like BlackICE, which runs $39.95? Frankly,
it’s worth it, and even non-security professionals can
easily use it. When properly configured, BlackICE offers
powerful, non-obtrusive protection. Simply set it for
your required level of protection (Paranoid, Nervous,
Cautious, Trusting) and you’re ready to go. True, you
can find more configurable personal firewalls out there,
but if you improperly configure them, why bother?
While some personal firewalls take hours to master and
“harass” you each time they detect unknown traffic, BlackICE
silently monitors your workstation and records all probes,
denial-of-service attacks, and entry attempts. A flashing
icon in your task tray lets you know someone has taken
an improper interest in you. Depending on the security
level you’ve configured, BlackICE automatically protects
your workstation from unwanted visitors. My recommendation
is that you start with the Paranoid setting and go from
there.
Want to have fun? Install BlackICE and let it run for
a few days. You’ll be shocked how many people are interested
in your telnet, SMB file sharing, and assorted UDP Trojan
ports. BlackICE can even do a quick query against an attacker,
giving you some idea of who’s probing you. Try taking
this information and putting it into Sam Spade to see
an attacker’s origin. Entering an IP address and then
getting an IP Block query can be revealing.
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| Figure 4. BlackICE Defender wraps
your Windows 9x/NT/2000 system with a personal firewall
and intrusion detection system. Here we see the configuration
dialog—nice and easy. (Click image to view larger
version.) |
BlackICE does a good job of interpreting attacks and,
if you’re so inclined, you can record raw packet information
for more thorough investigations. On the downside, BlackICE
doesn’t perform egress filtering (watching data that leaves
your system). But most of your current applications should
run flawlessly with BlackICE, and you won’t be hassled
every time you use a new application or email client.
About the Author
Chip Andrews, MCSE+I, MCDBA is a software security architect at (Clarus Corp.). Chip maintains the (sqlsecurity.com) Web site and speaks at security conferences on SQL Server security issues.