At home, I have this really old Pentium 120 that was kicking around with nothing to do. I found an open source Linux based firewall called Smoothwall (you can get it at smoothwall.org). It is built for any x86 computers but seems to be used primarily on older machines (as old as your first 486).

So I downloaded and installed this free software, and now I have a separate firewall protecting my home computers. With the addition of a cheap hub, all my computers (there are 3 or 4 in my house currently) are protected by this one firewall, and are able to share my high speed internet connection.

So anyways, I was reviewing the logs today, and noticed that between 7:14 AM this morning and 7:54 AM (about 40 minutes) there were over 150 attempts to gain access to my computer!

Now, I'm not saying its hackers, but I am thinking that many of the computers trying to access mine were unknowing participants in an effort to build a large zombie network.

In case you don't know, a zombie network is created, usually through the spread of viruses and worms, to help the virus (or worm) creator take over a large number of computers for some future deed, usually a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack against a major ISP or website.

Once a computer is infected it immediately goes out and tries to infect others, thereby spreading the virus at an ever increasing rate. Some estimates are that one computer can infect another every few seconds. In fact a recent virus infected over a million computers in less than 24 hours.

The scary thing is, your computer may be affected and you don't even know it. These bugs are sneaky and they hide and sometimes wait until there is inactivity on the computer before trying to propagate themselves.

So how do you protect yourself?

As always, make sure you get a virus scanner and update it often. Usually the manufacturers of such software know about the viruses and have fixes for them before they spread too far.

Second, make sure you patch your computer. If you run Windows, make sure you perform the Windows Update on a regular basis.

Also, get a firewall. It doesn't have to be like mine, sitting on a separate computer doing nothing else, but you should get this type of protection. There are many free ones, and demo ones out there. Windows XP Service Pack 2 also has improved the firewall built into Windows XP. At the very least, turn that on.

These 3 steps may not eliminate the threat entirely, but they will help reduce the chances that your computer will get infected, and then become a transmission point for other computers.

Rob Sullivan
Production Manager
Enquiro.com

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