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WHAT IS A FIREWALL.....?
Basically, a firewall is a program which creates a barrier to keep destructive forces away from your computer. It's job is similar to a physical firewall which keeps a fire from spreading from one area to the next. In fact, that is why it is called a firewall.
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BACKDOOR APPLICATIONS:
Some programs (Trojans) have special features that allow for remote access. This allows hackers to have some level of control of the Trojan program.
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PORT SCANNING:
Port Scanning is one of the most popular techniques hackers use to discover services they can break into. A potential victim's computer may run many services that listen at well-known ports. By scanning which ports are available on the victim, the hacker finds potential weaknesses that can be exploited.
More about Port Scanning
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DENIAL OF SERVICE (DoS):
You have probably heard this phrase used in news reports on the attacks on major Web sites. This type of attack is nearly impossible to counter. What happens is that the hacker sends a request to the server to connect to it. When the server responds with an acknowledgement and tries to establish a session, it cannot find the system that made the request. By inundating a server with these unanswerable session requests, a hacker causes the server to slow to a crawl or eventually crash. You may notice this, when you are trying to visit a site and the page will not load.
CONFIGURATION:
The level of security you establish will determine how many of these threats can be stopped by your firewall. The highest level of security would be to simply block everything. Obviously that defeats the purpose of having an Internet connection. But a common rule of thumb is to block everything, then select (create a rule) for whatever you want to allow through. You can also restrict traffic that travels through the firewall so that only certain types of information, such as e-mail, can get through, although, it is probably better to work with the defaults provided by the firewall developer unless there is a specific reason to change it.
One of the best things about a firewall from a security standpoint is that it stops anyone on the outside from gaining access to your computer.
Check out the Trojan List
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VIRUSES:
Probably the most well-known threat is computer viruses. A virus is a small program that can copy itself to other computers. This way it can spread quickly from one system to the next. Viruses range from harmless messages to erasing all of your data.
Make sure that you check whatever you download, as it may contain a virus. If you are receiving an email with an attachment, do not open the attachment, unless you know for sure that it is from a reliable source.
More about Viruses
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