Whether you are looking to protect a small network in your home or one that is the foundation of your business, you will find that it is first important to understand what kind of threats you might be facing. As soon as you have a computer hooked up in order to connect to the network, you will find that there is a chance that it can be exposed to a number of different risks. When you are thinking about what you can do to make a system a great deal more secure, you will find that an understanding of the risks that you are vulnerable to is something that can help a great deal.
First and perhaps most obviously, is the threat of a virus. While the majority of viruses are simply annoying, there are definitely viruses that can damage your network’s hardware, software, or both. For the most part, a virus is an executable file that will be spread by human means and will require someone to open it before it can do its work on the network. When looking at virus threats, it is worth understanding worms as well, which are considered a subset of viruses. Worms do not need human help to propagate themselves, and in fact one example of the way that they work is to turn your computer into an email server that will distribute copies of themselves.
When looking into network security threats, though, it is very important to consider what risks may be present from inside the system. First and foremost, the idea of bad architecture must be considered. If a network is mis-configured in the first place, it can be a very tempting target for people who are looking to get on it. One obvious example of this would be leaving a wireless network unsecured so that anyone with a network card could get onto it. This can certainly happen in a broader and more disastrous scope.
Interestingly enough, one of the most common measures taken to save time is also one that leaves network systems shockingly vulnerable. Consolidating a lot of services to one machine is a common measure for saving time and resources. It is easy to manage and simple to maintain, but if this single machine is compromised, there is a great deal of harm that can happen. While accidental failure is one thing, there is also the concern regarding the ease with which a single machine could be manipulated. In this case, the answer is frequently redundancy.
Computer network security is something that is very important, and if the information that you are safeguarding has anything to do with money or with personal information, it will achieve even a higher priority. Take some time and think about your system and think about whether it is vulnerable to any of the threats above. The more security that you can provide, the better off you will be. The protection of both your company and your customer depend on this aspect of your company’s working, so always consider what network security means to you.
By: Derek Rogers
Posts Tagged ‘Hardware Software’
What Are the Main Computer Network Security Threats?
March 2nd, 2010Wired Network Working into Wireless Access Points
December 13th, 2009
Let’s dive into something a little more complex. What if you have a wired network already, and you’re quite happy with the way it performs — you see no point in dismantling it and making it wireless when it works fine as it is. You’ve got this laptop, though, that you’d really like to use wirelessly. Basically, what you want to do is make a wireless connection to a wired network. This is often referred to as a network bridge.
As luck would have it, there’s a very easy way to do exactly what you want. It’s called a wireless access point.
Partly Wireless
If you’ve got a lot of computers (on an office network, for example) and you can’t switch them all over to wireless networking at once, installing a wireless router is a good way of doing it bit-by-bit. Once the router is part of the network, you could just remove one network wire per day or per week, replacing it with a wireless connection.
Hardware and Software Requirements
There are two kinds of wireless access points: software and hardware ones. Wireless access point software runs on one of the computers on the wired network, and lets wireless devices connect to the network through that computer (the computer must obviously be wireless-enabled).
You can get wireless access software easily — doing a web search will give you plenty of choices. Look for one that’s open source, as you will be able to download it straightaway for free without breaking any laws. Unfortunately, though, the wireless devices will only be connected to the network while the computer in question is turned on and connected itself.
Hardware access points, on the other hand, are standalone devices that can be plugged in anywhere on the network — you can either buy a dedicated access point, or convert an old computer to act as one and do nothing else. They connect to the wired network just as a normal computer would, except that they offer access to the network to any wireless receivers within range.
You can leave hardware access points connected to your network and turned on all the time, if you want. An advantage of dedicated devices is that they generally have a greater range, letting you use your wireless devices further away from the access point than you could with a software access point. Dedicated devices can be expensive, though — prices are roughly similar to wireless routers.
How Wireless Access Points Work
An access point sends requests for data on behalf of the wireless devices connected to it. In this way, it works a lot like a wireless router: basically, a wireless access point is to a wired LAN as a wireless router is to the Internet. The difference, though, is that the devices connected through an access point actually become part of the LAN — other computers on the LAN won’t distinguish between the wired computers and the wireless ones.
This is powerful, as it gives you the capability to dynamically extend your wired LAN, without wires. In theory, there shouldn’t be anything you can currently do over your wired network that you won’t be able to do over the wireless extension to it.
Configuring a Wireless Access Point
You can usually configure a wireless access point as easily as plugging it into a connection to your network, using the cable that should be included. Your network should see the access point and give it a networking (IP) address automatically. If you need to do any more configuration on your access point — for example, turning on wireless encryption — then you’ll need to open your access point’s settings.
You can do this by going to the router’s IP address in your web browser. If you’re not sure how to do this, refer to your access point’s manual (you might have better luck reading the online version, which will be updated with the latest problems people are having). While you’re playing with your access point’s settings, you might find it worth disabling DHCP (dynamic network addressing) and giving your access point a static address instead. This helps to keep your wired network more stable.
By: Tony Fitz
