Re: BlackICE Defender

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: : : Adrian : : : I want to thank you for your timely advice given on the subject of Firewalls v Hackers in the July issue of Fire Talk, and would urge members to heed what you have written there, (Marketing Tips “Knock, Knock, Who’s There?) as I am very pleased that I did. : : : I have always, until now, considered a firewall as a necessity for major companies only. Those companies that want to stop their staff from accessing anything on the Internet that is not appropriate for the job that they are doing. But sitting at my pc the other day your words came into my mind. It suddenly hit me that if I can get to information on the net, how many people could get into my pc. The Internet is a massive two-way system, but only if we allow it to be. : : : I decided to get BlackICE Defender. I already have McAfee Vshield for virus attacks, and a nice little ‘free’ script defender that pops up when I am about to open a file that could be dangerous, but I had to have a firewall. There are probably free firewall options on the Internet, but I decided on your recommendation of BlackICE. : : : To cut the story short, I installed BlackICE Defender on 24/07/2000 (ok! ok! July 24th 2000 for you members over the pond :o) On August 8th my BlackICE Defender sprang into life advising me that I had been attacked ‘seriously’ on 5 counts. Yet again two days later it sprang up advising of 8 ‘low level’ attacks and 4 ‘serious attacks. All attacks having been stopped and turned away by BlackICE. : : : Strangely enough, the day after installation, I had been forced to cancel the credit card that I use for my online transactions, as there were four items for total of about $900 US that I do not recognise. My credit card account had been compromised. Could it be that my pc has already been hacked? Have I been too late? : : : Total 17 attacks in three days running, including 9 of a serious nature, all blocked and turned away by BlackICE Defender. : : : The question is what were they after that they did not get on those occasions….and will they get it from someone else?? If any member does not yet have a firewall I urge them to take action now. : : : Please think about it, : : : Take care. : : : Alan Rutter : : : P.S : : : Another three scan attacks against my PC occurred whilst online submitting this letter. Please note:This is no reflection on International Resources. : : : : I had a small conflict with Norton Antivirus a week after I first installed it and uninstalled it only to find that the culprit was actually Norton. I then reinstalled it and since then have had 47 attacks in total. All were blocked other than DNS non Internet look ups (meaning my network connection between my computer and Fabienne's), and a TCP OS fingerprint (whatever that was?). : Adrian : According to Networkice the TCP OS fingerprint is as follows, using their text from: : http://advice.networkice.com/Advice/Intrusions/2000313/default.htm : Scan. Attacker sends unusual combination of TCP flags to see how the system responds. Usually, the attacker is trying to identify the victim's operating system. This information can then help the attacker determine which weaknesses exist on that system, and provides valuable information to assist in further attacks. : Alan

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