v1_0
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2007
- Messages
- 575
Re: Win XP Firewall?
I agree that zone alarm can be annoying at times, but I used to think that about wearing a seatbelt.
Comodo makes even more 'noise', by the way. I'd expect the 'pay' versions of both to make less noise but I haven't checked it out.
Attacking your computer from outside is only one category of how bad things can get in. It happens, but all that I've read seems to agree that it's pretty low risk for home users that don't have a static IP and that don't leave their computer (on and) connected to the internet all day.
The bigger risk by far are the things that you can get when surfing. You can be tricked into downloading things (when an untrusted by you website pops up a ad/question - do you click the "no" or "cancel" button inside the window, or do you use the "x" at the top right of the window? The button is under the control of the web page and will do whatever the web page has set it to do. Your computer just sees you clicking on a button on the web page.. The 'x' on the top right is part of the browser and will do what the browser has defined it to do - close the window). There are also ways of executing things on your computer - for a while there was an exploit where hackers could use a carefully crafted picture to execute whatever they wanted on your computer - that do not require you to do anything more than just visit the page.
And yes, you can use firefox to cut your vulnerability to the 'just visit the page' type of exploits - but not the ones that try to trick the user.
Sometimes the people that do this sort of thing really don't care to get your personal information. They want your computer & internet connection. They are doing a 'botnet' type thing - where they control a large number of computers. They can be used to perform a denial of service attack, or to visit websites (clicking on an ad = money), or to send spam email out.
I agree that zone alarm can be annoying at times, but I used to think that about wearing a seatbelt.
Comodo makes even more 'noise', by the way. I'd expect the 'pay' versions of both to make less noise but I haven't checked it out.
Attacking your computer from outside is only one category of how bad things can get in. It happens, but all that I've read seems to agree that it's pretty low risk for home users that don't have a static IP and that don't leave their computer (on and) connected to the internet all day.
The bigger risk by far are the things that you can get when surfing. You can be tricked into downloading things (when an untrusted by you website pops up a ad/question - do you click the "no" or "cancel" button inside the window, or do you use the "x" at the top right of the window? The button is under the control of the web page and will do whatever the web page has set it to do. Your computer just sees you clicking on a button on the web page.. The 'x' on the top right is part of the browser and will do what the browser has defined it to do - close the window). There are also ways of executing things on your computer - for a while there was an exploit where hackers could use a carefully crafted picture to execute whatever they wanted on your computer - that do not require you to do anything more than just visit the page.
And yes, you can use firefox to cut your vulnerability to the 'just visit the page' type of exploits - but not the ones that try to trick the user.
Sometimes the people that do this sort of thing really don't care to get your personal information. They want your computer & internet connection. They are doing a 'botnet' type thing - where they control a large number of computers. They can be used to perform a denial of service attack, or to visit websites (clicking on an ad = money), or to send spam email out.