Making your PC harder to hack

One of the often used buzzwords in our tech savvy society is hacker. People fear them, want to be them, but very few really understand them. Hackers usually fall into two distinct categories. The white hat hackers, who search for vulnerabilities in systems and networks to help make them more secure, and the black hat hackers, who search for vulnerabilities to exploit maliciously.

Obviously, the black hat hackers are the ones that make the news and are the ones that we should be concerned about. We generally, hear about hackers compromising corporate and government systems and web sites, and we may feel removed from the need to protect ourselves from such characters. The truth is that we should probably be more vigilant than the corporate world when it comes to securing our systems.

When malicious hackers begin their cyber assaults they often use another computers’ I D to launch the attacks. The easiest computer I Ds for them to commandeer are home PCs that have a broadband connection and no firewall or other protection. The reason broadband is more vulnerable than a dialup connection is because with broadband your computer doesn’t break the connection to the internet when you’re not using your system. This means that you are constantly connected to the internet and potential hackers could scan your computer for vulnerabilities at any time. Once your computer has been compromised, your computer could be used for anything from launching attacks to harvesting your personal information for identity theft.

Now you now that I wouldn’t tell you about all of these hazards if I didn’t have a few suggestions to help with them. The first thing that I would do is install anti-virus and firewall software. Firewall software provides a barrier between your information and those that may scan your system. You will even be notified that someone is trying to probe your computer for vulnerabilities. The problem is that most people don’t have firewalls installed on their home PC. The anti-virus software will prevent people from gaining access to your system by sending you a virus that will give them access through your firewall. These software generally range in price from about $20 to $50 each, and can be found at Best Buy, Circuit City, Bookmans, or your favorite PC store. Also, I would suggest updating patches on the software on your system. Patches are what software companies issue to close exploits that have been found in their software. You can usually download them from the software manufacturers website. The last product may be a little harder to find, as it is an emerging technology, but is well worth it if you do. It is call a Silicon Digital Vault or SDV for short. It is a piece of hardware that is installed on the motherboard and acts as an internal firewall. It begins encrypting and securing your hard drive during the boot up process. Securing your computer today may save you misfortune later.