Table Of Content"Every personal, professional, corporate, and community library sys
tem should have on hand a reference copy of Thomas Greene's
Computer Security For The Home and Small Office."
-The Midwest Book Review (www.midwestbookreview.com)
"Particularly for the Windows XP user, this is my primary endorse
ment for a computer security book. I would also recommend the
work to security professionals, at least as a reference, since it contains
Windows configuration that system administrators should know,
and the vast majority don't."
-Robert Slade
"This is a highly readable and interesting book on how to secure your
computer systems against attacks and keep your data private . ..
Windows bas hers will love the book, Windows defenders will think
he's overly critical of the platform. Either way, this is material you
can't afford to ignore in today's, environment."
-Thomas Duff (www.twduff.com)
Computer Security
for the Home
and Small Office
THOMAS C. GREENE
APress Media, LLC
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Contents at a Glance
About the Author ...............................................
vii
About the Technical Reviewer ................................
ix
About the Illustrator ..........................................
x
Acknowledgments .................................................
xi
Preface ...........................................................
xiii
Introduction ....................................................
xvii
Chapter 1 Introducing the Dark Side .......................... 1
Chapter 2 Vectors .............................................. 31
Chapter 3 Social Engineering ................................. 73
Chapter 4 From Newbie to Power User ......................... 95
Chapter 5 Treasure Hunt ...................................... 155
Chapter 6 The Open-Source Escape Hatch ..................... 195
Chapter 7 Trust Nothing, Fear Nothing ...................... 219
Appendix A Glossary ............................................ 279
Appendix B Procedures, Processes, and Ports ................ 297
Appendix C Online Resources .................................. 389
Index .............................................................
393
iii
Contents
About the Author ...............................................
vii
About the Technical Reviewer ................................
ix
About the Illustrator ..........................................
x
Acknowledgments .................................................
xi
Preface ...........................................................
XllZ
Introduction ....................................................
xvii
The Magic of Firewalls .......................................... xvii
"Hackproofing" ................................................... xxiv
An Open-Source Solution ......................................... xxvi
Why Mozilla? ..................................................... xxix
Chapter 1 Introducing the Dark Side ..................... 1
The Hacker's lair ................................................. 4
Child's Play ....................................................... 13
Free Porn and Easy Credit ........................................ 21
Chapter 2 Vectors ............................................ 31
Common Vectors ..................................................... 33
Other Vulnerabilities ............................................. 39
"Unsafe at Any Speed" ............................................ 41
Defense ............................................................. 45
Becoming a User ................................................... 58
Chapter 3 Social Engineering .............................
73
Serving Hackers with a Smile .................................... 75
Mad Cows ........................................................... 88
v
Contents
Chapter 4 From Newbie to Power User ....................
95
Network and Internet Monitoring ................................. 99
System Monitoring ................................................ 112
Encryption ........................................................ 119
Chapter 5 Treasure Hunt ...................................
155
Local Stealth ..................................................... 156
The Wibbly Wobbly Web ........................................... 178
Online Stealth ................................................... 181
Chapter 6 The Open-Source Escape Hatch ...............
195
A Fresh Approach ................................................. 196
The Sins of William Perfidious ................................. 204
Chapter 7 Trust Nothing, Fear Nothing ................
219
"Depend on Us" ................................................... 220
Disinformation .................................................... 227
Unintended Consequences ......................................... 256
Database Hell ..................................................... 264
Trust Nothing, Fear Nothing ..................................... 275
Appendix A Glossary ..........................................
279
Appendix B Procedures, Processes, and Ports .........
297
Procedures ........................................................ 297
Notes on NAT ...................................................... 348
Notes on Packet Filters ......................................... 349
Windows Processes ................................................ 351
Ports .............................................................. 354
Appendix C Online Resources ...............................
389
Security News ..................................................... 389
Resources ........................................................ 390
E-mail Lists ...................................................... 392
Index .............................................................
393
vi
About the Author
Thomas Greene is Associate Editor of the information technology journal The
Register (www. the register . co. uk), the leading independent tech news daily, where
he has been a senior editor and columnist for five years. Tom covers cybercrime,
computer and network security, and legislation related to information technology.
The Register is much loved for its irreverent editorial style and its exasperat
ing ability to break stories that greatly inconvenience industry heavyweights.
Prior to his job at The Register, Tom covered the pharmaceutical industry
for FDC Reports, a division of Elsevier Science. Prior to that he lived in Seoul,
South Korea, studying Asian history and working in language education. He
holds a bachelor's degree from Williams College, though he's not proud of it.
vii
About the Technical
Reviewer
Robert Slade started researching malware and other aspects of security before his
grandchildren were born. He has written an eponymously titled guide to computer
viruses, Software Forensics, a glossary of information security jargon, a bunch of
magazine and encyclopedia articles, and coauthored Viruses Revealed. Despite all
of this, he is best known for gleefully (and regularly) pointing out the errors in liter
ally thousands of books written by other people, since it is easier and more fun.
More information than anyone would want to know about him is available at
sun. soci. niu. edurrslade/rms. htm. It is next to impossible to get him to take bio
writing seriously.
ix
About the Illustrator
Mike Reed is an illustrator and close observer of Internet culture. He currently
teaches at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota. His taxonomy of
Internet personalities can be seen at www.flamewarriors.com.
x
