User:Rewood/Guard against Windows PC hacker breakins

Hackers are compromising Windows PCs on campus at an alarming rate. In almost all cases, they are exploiting known security holes that you can prevent.

Just during the month of April 2002, over 150 Windows PCs on campus running either NT, 2000, or XP, were compromised by hackers because these computers had Administrator accounts with no password!

Another 130 PCs, including two in Earth Sciences, were found to be compromised by the "Ataman" worm in the first week of May.

Hackers exploited default file sharing configurations to enter these computers that had no Administrator password.

On average, a new hacker scan of the Stanford network starts every two hours! If you put your computer on the network with open accounts or other obvious security bugs, it will be compromised within hours.

Once a hacker gains access to your computer, he usually uses it to attack other computers on the network. So if your computer is vulnerable, you also become a danger to others on the network.

To recover from the hacker compromise, you usually have to completely wipe the disk and re-install Windows and all your software. That is a great waste of time. In addition, a malicious hacker can wipe out your important documents (this has happened here in the School of Earth Sciences).

If you use a Windows PC at Stanford or connecting to Stanford from home, please take the simple steps listed below to help secure it against hackers. Read the full article to get the details of each step.

If you need help to secure your system on our network, please enter a HelpSU request. Steps to secure your Windows PC:

• Use strong passwords on all Windows computer accounts!
• Install security patches regularly.
• Disable Windows file sharing, or setup correctly.
• Install and regularly update anti-virus software.
• Protect against e-mail viruses.
• Use PCLeland and Samson for secure logins to campus servers.
• Don't run unnecessary network services.
• Run a security analyzer to test your computer.
• Regularly backup your important computer files.
• Apply special security fixes for Windows XP.

Macintosh computers are rarely compromised by hackers, both because the operating system design is more secure and because the Macintosh gets less hacker attention. UNIX and Linux systems can be vulnerable, because they typically run many network services and thus are regularly probed by hackers.