🚀 go-pugleaf

me@me writes:

> A hacker paid me a visit early this morning.  My freebee firewall
> (AtGuard) appears to have deterred him.  The report shows the hacker
> did a Sockets port probe.  The hackers IP is 24.30.12x.xx.  I did the
> usual DNS & Whois, and only found he is from mediaone.  I complained
> to abuse@mediaone.net about the hack, and they replied with the usual
> form nonense.  I xx the last 3 digits of the IP since the hacker is
> probably some kid just screwing around.  When I had just a dialup ISP,
> I only had to worry about spammers, now I have damn hackers to worry
> about also.  I have the following questions about cable modems and MS
> Windows95 operating system.
> 1.  Can a hacker break into windows95 even though file & printer
> sharing is disabled, no firewall installed?  If yes, how much damage
> can he do?

Depends what you mean by disabled. Unfortunately with this service
there are varying levels of enabled/disabled.

If remove "File and Printer sharing" from the services you are safe
from file access. But you might have one of hundreds of Trojan Horse
Backdoor programs. Run netstat -a and see what ports are
"listening". Pay special attention to ports 12345 and 31337. These are
notorious backdoor programs.

Yes, here it is again: A scan from http://hackerwhacker.com would give
you a very good picture of your vulnerabilities. Netstat will show you
your open ports but it won't show the effects your firewall has.

> Cable modems are a blessing and a curse.  At the office, very
> knowledgeable people handle hackers.  Now cable modems force me to
> obtain the same knowledge.  What a bummer.

No. You have always had the problem. I don't know why people think
that dial up connections are any different. Your machine was just as
vulnerable as a dial-up. The risk amount is dependent on the amount of
time you spend online, not your connection type. Some people leave
their dial-ups connected 24x7, some people turn off their cable modem
when they aren't using it.

Wally
-- 
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NOW, FREE. 
Security sites that have changed in the last 6 hours: 
http://packetstorm.securify.com/100.shtml 
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