TEK Service's Privacy/Security Newsletter Samples

TEK Privacy/Security Newsletter
Newsletter Samples
The below are short excerpts only and don't contain
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Is Your Fly Open?--

Sorry, maybe we should ask is your garage door open? Or is the barn door open? More correctly, are your ports open?

If you are reading this page, you are connected to the internet somehow. Unless you are at a business office with computers running Unix or Linux (or you're a techno geek and have your personal computer running on Unix or Linux), you are probably using some flavor of Windows^TM operating system. Unless you have made the effort to install a software or hardware firewall, the chances are extremely high that your computer is wide open for any would be cracker or script-kiddie to access your computer, store or delete files on or from your hard drive, record every keystroke you or anyone makes (including passwords, credit card numbers, etc.), or even view what is on your monitor screen.

Sound farfetched? It's not in the slightest. In fact, most Windows^TM based computers by default are an open invitation to this kind of access and it takes only milliseconds for a would be attacker to scan your ports to gain access.

The reason for this is that, as the Windows^TM operating system is shipped, the default settings for the networking portion of the operating system that allows "sharing" over the local network leave the system wide open for direct access to your computer's network ports. The very capability that lets you easily(?!) setup a small network is just as easily letting anyone "share" your computer- without your knowledge or consent.

What can you do to protect yourself against this kind of violation? You can change the network settings on your computer so that the 32,000 or so networking ports on your computer are closed or not accessible from the internet. Or you can install a good quality firewall software program on your computer to cloak or close all those open ports-- or both!

Where you should go to get the complete, step by step instructions on how to change your network settings to close the ports is...[Full information is contained in article continued in newsletter]

Also you will learn about a free (for personal use) firewall software program that is just unbelievable in it's security and ease-of-use! You can have it installed and running in a matter of minutes- not hours or days, like some firewall programs... [Full article continued in newsletter]

'Net Nuts 'n' Bolts for Novices--

How Web and Email servers work

A website requires a "host" webserver, where the web "pages" are stored and "served" to the web browsers who visit the site. Web pages are written in a page markup language, called HTML, or hypertext markup language. We use an HTML editor program to create the HTML or web pages, but they actually are written and stored in plain text format, so we could actually use a simple text word processing editor to create and edit them, and many experienced web designers do. The "server" is a computer that is connected directly to the internet, and is online all the time, so it can send the web pages to anyone who wants to view them.

A small business website should have enough space for the webpages, any graphics files (like pictures of the business, or people/staff, other graphics images such as logos, icons or buttons or the like), and, if email is stored on the website, for email accounts and storage of their email until they read it, plus the general "overhead" required to operate and maintain a website.

A domain name is the just the human usable Internet address that the website or email server, etc., lives at. As an example, a website resides at www.tekconnex.com. The "www" denotes it is a website, the "tekconnex" is the business name and the ".com" is an identifier that it is a commercial or business entity type of website. In internet jargon, ".com" is a "top level domain", or "TLD", "tekconnex" is the "second level domain". Another site is called "www.tcx.net", ".net" identifies it as a networking type of website, possibly one that is used to host, or network, many different business websites that don't have their own domain name.

A 'URL' is the uniform resource locator, or global address, of about anything on the World Wide Web. For instance, the URL of http://www.tekconnex.com/tcx/index.html indicates the individual html default webpage [index.html] that resides at the 'tcx' subdirectory of the tekconnex.com domain website, and is accessible by "http", or hypertext protocol [web browser].

The reason we call the domain name the "human usable" address is that all Internet addresses are really based on IP, or Internet Protocol, numbers. These IP addresses are in a form called "dotted quad" numbers, or combinations of four hexadecimal numbers separated by periods (dots). Therefore, the actual address that the domain name tekconnex.com lives at is 66.221.80.183, which is a lot harder to remember than tekconnex.com. The domain name just uses a human memorable form to make it easier for humans to remember and use, rather than IP numbers. To get to the webpage with the URL of http://www.tekconnex.com/index.html, you could also enter a URL of http://66.221.80.183/index.html and you would be taken to the same place.

In order to do this, a master database of all domain names and their IP numbers are maintained in what is called the Domain Name Registry. This massive database is maintained, updated and sent to all the Doman Name Servers around the world every day. Domain Name Servers are computers that hold a database of addressing information for it's local domain names. Therefore, when someone in Europe wants to go to www.tekconnex.com/index.html, their browser contacts the local DNS server and asks for directions to get there. Since the local DNS wouldn't have the information it would pass the request on up the line of DNS servers, possibly getting to the master Domain Name Registry database maintained by InterNIC (Internet Network Information Center). This database contains the IP address of the specific DNS server that holds the local information, and the request is then sent to that local DNS. That computer looks up the local information, passes it on, and the browser then connects to the IP address of the tekconnex.com website and retrieves the info.html file or webpage.

Now you can see why they often say that the "www" stands for "world wide wait". If there are too many people making requests all at the same time, there isn't enough bandwidth to accommodate them all (We'll cover bandwidth, IP addressing, and "dotted quad" notation some other time.) Like trying to put 5 lanes of bumper-to-bumper rush-hour traffic into 3 lanes, the highway just isn't "wide" enough. Knowing just what happens when you try to access a webpage often makes you wonder just how it can work at all, let alone work as quickly as it often does.

A "webpage" is one part or section of a website. A website can consist of only one webpage, or of many webpages, linked together, or of CGI scripts, which create webpages "on the fly". A "website" is actually the place, or server space, where the web 'pages' are stored. A webpage is usually sorta like a magazine page; it has a certain amount of information on it, and you can go to other "pages" that have other information. A webpage can actually be huge - or long- but are usually kept to about a screenful or two in size. Some websites have one webpage only, and that webpage is scrolled down, and down, and down, etc. It is not a good idea to do that, because people aren't used to scrolling down the page, they want to click on a link to another page and have it presented to them.[Full article continued in newsletter...]