It’s kind of funny when individuals get paranoid about hackers and fly off the handle. This post on the main page of a site I visited recently reminded me of it:
Recent attempts by hackers to break into my server have not gone unnoticed. I have blocked numerous IP address segments, mostly ones used by Asian-Pacific networks. However, I recently blocked an IP in use in the Tampa, FL area. When I do block an IP address, I usually block 255 addresses at a time. For example, if the hacker’s IP address is 66.232.110.2, I will block the range of 66.232.110.0 – 66.232.110.255. This reduces the time I must spend monitoring my network since the hacker can easily obtain another IP address in the same segment. The downside is that if you are not a hacker, but your neighbor is, your IP address might also be blocked because of your hacker neighbor. Users of blocked IP addresses will not be able to use the unique call lookup.
No hacker is reading that…and if they are, they’re laughing. Hacking, like most Internet crimes, is generally a crime of opportunity. In other words, although they are looking for something (usually control of your computer), hackers aren’t usually specifically interested in you. They want it to be easy. The best defenses against hacking for the individual are:
- keep your system updated
- don’t download little widgets (like the **** Weather Bug and the xyz toolbar)
- use some sort of passwords
That’ll make it hard enough to keep out of 99% hackers. If you have something they want worse than that, chances are you are already paying an expert to protect you.
It’s very likely that the paranoid guy quoted above was being pounded by computers that had already been compromised by hackers, and not directly by the hackers themselves. As they say, you’d think Windows Update was illegal in the Far East.
