The Check Point ZoneAlarm Pro promotion represents a $40 value and includes a full year license for up to three PCs. It is limited to only one download per new customer.

Features of Zonealarm Pro Firewall 2010:

• Advanced Download – Analyzes browser downloads in three unique ways before they can infect your PC and warns if they are malicious.
• Free Credit Bureau – Protects your identity with daily credit report monitoring and provides victim recovery services.
• Complimentary and Compatible – Works well with other free and paid (non-firewall) security products, such as AVG and Norton Antivirus.
• Automatic Program Control – See less alerts than with ZoneAlarm Free Firewall.
• OSFirewall™ – Monitors changes within your computer to spot and stop new attacks that bypass traditional anti-virus protection.
• Anti-phishing and Site Status – Blocks fraudulent websites including “phishing” sites that trick you into entering personal data.
• Two-way Firewall – Keeps hackers out by making your PC invisible online and blocking intrusions.

Additional information about the firewall are available at the Zonealarm website.

Update: Users need to add credit card information for “verification” purposes. Check Point is setting the subscription to automatically renew after a year which can be changed in the use profile on the website.

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When you spend a lot of time creating and administering the web/mail server combination, it’s always good to have a solution that is easy to put in place. I have found one that I have used for a while now and trust its security and ease of use. This “system” uses a fairly complex iptables script that has just a single line that you will need to modify in order to have sound security for a web/mail server that serves up web pages via Apache on port 80 and mail via SMTP on port 25 and IMAP via port 143. Included in this script is the inclusion of port 25 for secure shell access.

You will be surprised how simple this script is to use. I have uploaded the script to a pastebin site which you can access using this address. Copy that script to your Linux server (for the sake of simplicity save it in ~/scripts, which you will create) and you are ready to set the system up.

Configuration

The only line you need to configure (unless you need to change the networking device name and/or want to include extra ports or remove ports from the script) is line 8. This line looks like:

SCRIPT_DIR="/PATH/TO/DIRECTORY"

What you want to have there is the location that will be filled with any IP address blocked by the firewall. For the purposes of this tutorial it will be saved in ~/scripts.

Once you have that edited you can save the file and call it start_iptables.sh. Now give the file executable permission with the command:

chmod u+x start_iptables.sh

Now create a new file called stop_iptables.sh. The contents of that file will be:

iptables -F
iptables -X
iptables -t nat -F
iptables -t nat -X
iptables -t mangle -F
iptables -t mangle -X
iptables -P INPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P OUTPUT ACCEPT
iptables -P FORWARD ACCEPT

Make that file executable with the command:

chmod u+x stop_iptables.sh

The former script will start your firewall, the latter script will stop it.

Starting this script

You can start and stop this script any time you feel like with the command:

sudo ~/scripts/start_iptables.sh

If there are no errors you should see something like:

Starting IPv4 Wall…

You can also check to see by listing all of your iptables chains with the command:

sudo iptables -L

Stopping the firewall is done with the command:

sudo ~/scripts/stop_iptables.sh

Start at bootup

Now let’s make it such that the firewall script starts upon boot of the server (should the need arise).  Open up the /etc/rc.local file and add the line:

/PATH/TO/scripts/start_iptables.sh

before the “exit 0″ line.

Where /PATH/TO/ is the explicit path to the ~/scripts directory (you can’t use “~/” in rc.local).

The script will now start at boot.

Final thoughts

This easy to install firewall will add a level of saftey to your web/mail server that would be hard to come by with a GUI tool. And if you are using a headless (console only) server, it’s the only way to go.

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Now with the Linux operating system you have a lot of choices for protection. But one of the easiest to use is Firestarter. Firestarter is one of the easiest-to-use firewalls I have used. And with this simplicity does not come a sacrifice to security. Just because it’s easy does not mean it lacks protection. Firestarter is powerful and has a ton of features. In this article you will learn how to install Firestarter and set up a basic desktop firewall.

Feature highlights

Firestarter includes such features as:

• Setup wizard.
• Real time event viewer.
• Easy port forwarding.
• ICMP parameter tuning.
• Advanced kernel tuning.
• Suitable for desktops, servers, and gateways.

and much, much more.

Installation

The installation of Firestarter is simple. Because it will most likely be found in your distributions’ repositories you will only need to follow these steps for installation:

1. Open up your Add/Remove Software tool.
2. Search for “firestarter” (no quotes).
3. Select Firestarter for installation.
4. Click Apply.
5. Enter your user password.
6. Wait for the installation to complete.
7. Close your Add/Remove Software utility.

Running Firestarter

Figure 1

You will find the Firestarter executable located in the Administration sub-menu of the System menu (in GNOME). When you first run Firestarter the wizard will open up. The first screen is the usual Welcome screen so you can just click the Forward button. The first screen you will have to do any configuration with is the Network Device Setup (see Figure 1). In this screen you need to set which interface Firestarter is to listen to. I am using a laptop so I will select my wireless device.

Figure 2

The next screen (see Figure 2) asks if you need to use internet connection sharing to set your machine up as a gateway. If you do you will need to first click the check box to enable it and then select an interface for the other machines to connect to. If you need to use your machine as a DHCP server you will have to have that installed outside of Firestarter.

Once you have taken care of connection sharing (if it is needed) click the Forward button and you’re done. The last screen wants to know if you want to start the firewall immediately and has you save your configuration.

Figure 3

While Firestarter is running you will see a small icon in your notification area that looks like a blue circle with a right-pointing triangle. If you click on that it will open up the Firestarter main window (see Figure 3). From this window you can Stop the firewall, lock the firewall, view the events log, edit both your inbound and outbound policies, and monitor active connections.

In order to monitor active connections expand the Active Connections listing which will list every connection made to and from your machine. In both the Active connections section and the Events tab you can right click an entry and take action. For instance, in the Active Connections section you can right click an entry and look up the hostname of that entry. In the Events tab you can do more. If you right click an entry in the Events tab you can do the following:

• Allow connections from source.
• Allow inbound service for everyone.
• Allow inbound service for source.
• Disable events from source.
• Disable events on port.
• Lookup hostnames.

Finally, in the Policy tab, you can right click any blank area and add a rule that will apply to a connection from a host or to a port/service. When you go to add a rule you will only need enter the IP address (or domain) and then add a comment.

Final thoughts

Firestarter makes the often daunting task of creating a firewall for a Linux machine simple. If you have ever dealt with iptables you will understand when I say this is a huge relief for desktop users who do not want to take the time to learn to use the underlying technology.

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As you would expect, with the help of Webmin, creating a firewall is very simple. And the default Webmin installation comes complete with a firewall module built in, so there is nothing to install (once you have Webmin installed.) All you have to do is point your browser to http://IP_OR_DOMAIN:1000 (Where IP_OR_DOMAIN is the actual IP address or domain hosting your Webmin installation.) If Webmin is installed on your desktop you can point your browser to http://localhost:10000.

Webmin Firewall

Once you are in the Webmin window you will want to click on the Servers link and then click on the Linux Firewall link. The image to the left is the top portion of the configuration screen. This image is showing a default iptables chain that is installed by default in Fedora. As you can see these chain rules are easily modified, moved, appended, and removed.

The Add Rule Window

I want to illustrate how easy it is to add a new rule to the already existing chain. Let’s say you want to add a rule that denies all incoming connections to port 110 (pop3) to your machine. To do this click on the Add Rule button to reveal the Add Rule window (see image to the right.)

The primary configurations to take for this would be:

• Rule Comment: Give the rule a name.
• Action to take: Drop
• Source Address: Any
• Destination Address: 192.168.1. (This will depend upon your needs. If you have a static IP address for the machine enter that.
• Destination Port: 110

Once you have filled this out, click Create Rule and you will be returned to the main window with your rule listed.

Final Steps

Once you have your new rule(s) created you have to scroll down and click the Apply Configuration button (see the image to the left). You will also notice, near the bottom, buttons that allow you to enable your firewall at boot, reset your firewall, and reset to the currently active firewall.

Once you have applied your configuration, if you want to remove a rule you just created you have to go back to the rule list, select the rule you want to delete, and click the Delete Selected button.

It is also important to make sure you have your rules set up in the right order. It is very easy to arrange your rules with the Webmin Firewall Module. Go to the rule listing and click either the up or down arrow the corresponds to the rule you want to move, The rule is then moved one slot up or down (depending upon which arrow you click). But don’t forget to click the Apply Configuration or your move will not stick.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for a very simple, web-based, solution for creating a firewall the Webmin firewall module might be the answer for you. Not only is it easy to use, you can administer your firewall remotely.

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That was then, this is now and in the now there are graphical front ends to help you build a firewall without having to issue a single command from the command line. One of those tools is fwbuilder. The fwbuilder tool builds iptables rulesets but does so by treating each element of the individual rule as an object, a service, or a time. Objects are addresses. Services are protocols or (as the name implies) services. Time is just as it says, time (such as day of the week or a specific time.)

To start up fwbuilder you will find the menu entry in Applications | Administration (under KDE) or in System | Administration (under GNOME). When you fire up fwbuilder you might find yourself thinking “Where do I start?” The first thing to do is go to the File menu and select New Object File. You have to give your object file a name and then save it.

fwbuilder new object

Once you have done this you are ready to start building. As you can see, in the image to the left, the drop-down icon to the left of the User drop-down is what you click to insert a new object into your object file. Click that drop-down to reveal the list of all object to insert.

The first object you must insert into your object file is the Firewall. When you select that a wizard will open up asking for a name for your firewall, what software will run the firewall, and what OS the firewall will run on. I will name my firewall “Example_Firewall”, I will choose iptables from the software list, and Linux 2.4/2.6 for the OS.

Template Chooser

Now, if you want to go the really easy route you can select to insert preconfigured template for your firewall. If you select this you will have to choose your template. Once you have taken care of this information click Next.

Once you click next you will see a list of different templates available. Each template serves a different purpose. As you click on each template a full description will reveal itself in the bottom pane.

After you select the proper template click the Finish button. Now fwbuilder will be open so you can view your template.

Ready To Insert Objects

The first thing you can do is expand the name of the firewall (in my example I would Example_Firewall) and select the object you want to view. Say you want to view the Policy of this firewall (remember this was created from a template so there are already rules applied). To do this click the “Policy” listed (once you expand the firewall) which will reveal the policy in all its glory.

fwbuilder policy editor

Because this is a template you can not edit the objects. This is one of those that you chose based on a specific, yet simple, need.

In the image to the right you can see the details of the policy included with the single interface firewall template.

If you want to create a custom firewall you would go through the same process but, at the point where you are defining your firewall you wouldn’t choose the Preconfigured Template. Instead you would leave that option unchecked and then, in the next window, choose to “Configure Interfaces Manually”. At this point you would add objects as needed and configure those objects to suit your needs.

Once your firewall is built you must then save the firewall, compile the firewall, and install the rules. Here’s the kicker with configuring your firewalls manually. You will need to know the MAC addresses of your interfaces. Fwbuilder has built in SNMP discovery which will help to map out the various interfaces on your network. To use that tool go to the Tool menu and select Discovery Druid. This tool should keep you from having to manually find and associate MAC addresses.

Final Thoughts

The fwbuilder tool is an outstanding means of creating firewalls for any situation. This article gave you a cursory glance at this powerful tool. Give it a try and build a firewall. Try the templates and, once you are familiar with the tool, build your very own customized firewall.

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A good way to perform security tests on antivirus firewall software programs are so called leak tests. These tests simulate different kind of attacks and manipulations on a computer system without actually doing any harm to it. They usually present statistics at the end telling the user which tests the antivirus firewall software program passed and which it failed.

Comodo Leaktest is but one of the many available leak tests on the Internet. The security software is testing a total 34 different attacks and manipulations of a computer system running the Microsoft Windows operating system. Depending on the antivirus and firewall software in use some, all or none might spawn alerts.

The software program will display a score in the end. The maximum amount of points is 340, 10 for each test passed. Each test is explained on a local html page that gets downloaded with the software program. Those information can be used to find out why a test has not been passed. It does require some research though as the information provided are only answers to the questions what the test is doing and what the harm is if the test fails.

The leak test can be divided into different categories. It will begin with some rootkits tests followed by invasion, injection, info send, impersonation and hijacking tests.

Comodo Leak Test is a portable security software that will test an antivirus firewall software that is installed on a Windows operating system. It provides the means to find out if your computer system is still – partially or fully – vulnerable to common attacks encountered locally and remotely.

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The url with the free offer will go live at the same time which is why it cannot be posted yet. It is likely that the following page will provide access to the download, it seems to be connected to the offer.

Users who download Zonealarm Pro will receive the software program for free including its one year subscription. The package would normally cost $39.95 for a year. The Zonealarm Pro suite contains a firewall and anti-spyware application.

The website will most likely be overrun tomorrow by thousands of users who want to grab their free copy. The best spots are probably to be among the first or download it in the second half of the day.

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Whenever a application requests a connection to the Internet that is not in the list of applications that have already defined firewall rulesets Vista Firewall Control asks the user if he wants to allow or deny that connection.

That’s a known feature from many desktop firewalls. The options are to configure the application to disable or enable all connections or to allow only incoming or outgoing connections.

The list of applications that already have a ruleset can be displayed and edited or deleted if necessary. The free version of Vista Firewall Control does have several limitations and it would probably be better to download and install a third party Firewall like Comodo instead.

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Ratings range from Excellent to Unacceptable with Comodo Firewall receiving the only Excellent rating. Comodo on the other hand seems to be the company that created the Test My PC Security website. I don’t think that they are cheating openly about the results but it could be that they designed the tests that way that their firewall would do very well. Now, I’m not an expert on the topic and it just seems a little bit strange, that is all I have to say.

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The Steganos Security Suite 2007 combines many tools in one suite and it’s aim is protect your data from hackers and thieves both online and offline. Six of its nine applications are based on encryption, like the email encryption or password manager. Two of the remaining three clean and delete data permanently from the system and one is an anti-theft protection that can be helpful if your computer gets stolen and the thief does go online without wiping the hard drive of the computer first.

Now, here is how you get your free serial number. Go to the following url and enter an email address in the form field. The serial number for the product will be send to it. Now visit My Steganos and create an account for the website. I did use the same email address. They send an verification email again and you have to click on the link contained within to activate the account.

Visit the downloads section of the Steganos website and pick the Steganos Security Suite 2007 from the list of products. You have to enter the serial number after installation to use the product.

Step by Step guide:

• Get your serial number send to your mail account by visiting this page.
• Register an account at the Steganos website
• Confirm the account by opening the link in the email that is send to your account
• Login to the downloads section and download the Steganos Security Suite 2007
• Enter the serial number after installation.

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I’m not a huge fan of software firewalls as you can tell from my previous posts on the subject. Still, if you rely on it and use it you might find this information useful. There are basically two methods of reseting the Windows Firewall.

My favorite one is by using the command line and the command netsh firewall reset which is all you need. The firewall will be reset which makes sure that any malicious changes to it are gone. All of your rules and changes are gone as well but that is the price you have to pay.

The second possibility would be to open the control panel, click on the Windows Firewall icon, there on the Advanced tab and finally on the Restore Defaults button.

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Users who would like to download the regular Zonealarm Anti-Spyware free of charge today have to supply their name and a valid email address to receive the download link, a valid serial number for the software and instructions on how to enter that serial number to activate the software.

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After discovering this they decided to ban URLs starting with ‘feeds’, ‘blog’, ‘rss’ and probably a handful of other related words. Several of my readers from China mentioned to me that my feed was blocked in China as well but the website was not. So, they started visiting my website again.

If you want to check if your website or feed is blocked as well in China you can use the website test behind the Great Firewall of China to do so. Just enter the url of your website, blog or feed, choose a location (Hong Kong, Beijing or Shanghai), enter the validation code and wait for a response from the script.

An alternative to RSS feeds is to get those feeds by mail or using a service on the web that displays them. Newsgator is supposed to work fine at the moment. It would be nice to receive information about Netvibes and Google Reader.

Read More:

Test if you website is blocked in China
Newsgator
Email Digests of RSS Feeds

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The first and one of the most important steps would be to download and install the latest security fixes and services packs. I sometimes have to talk to users in my job (which is somewhat security related as well) and discover that they run Windows XP with the same settings that the pc was shipped with. No updates, outdated anti-virus definitions and the like. You do get the latest patches and fixes for your operating system at windowsupdates.

Make sure you have a valid license otherwise you will not be able to download the updates. A different way would be to use autopatcher which can be downloaded in a version that includes all the updates and fixes already.

The next step would be to turn off unnecessary services and programs that you won’t use. Why should the remote service be active if you never use it ? This reduces the chance of an attacker to get into the system. There are currently 19 services running on my system, if you never tinkered with them before you have probably double that size or even more.

Read the article about turning unnecessary services off, it explains the basics. It is a good idea to turn of the following services if you do not need them

• Telnet
• Universal Plug and Play Device Host
• IIS (not installed by default)
• Netmeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
• Remote Desktop Help Session Manager
• Remote Registry
• Routing & Remote Access
• SSDP Discovery Service

Talking about software. It is wise to not use the default Microsoft products like Outlook Express or Internet Explorer. Those are attacked the most because most of the users use them. (besides offering great ways of attacking them) Alternatives would be Firefox or Opera for Internet Explorer and Thunderbird for Outlook Express.

You should install a anti-virus solution. I do use Antivir but others should be fine as well. The most important aspect is that you keep the definition files up to date. If the software offers automatic updates I suggest you make it update the files once a day.

Firewalls. I do not use them. Well, not a software based firewall that is. I do have a hardware firewall which is all I need. I think that firewalls give the user a false sense of security. They are highly complex and require lots of attention to secure the system. It is not enough to simply install one and click on accept / deny every time a program wants to connect to the internet.

To secure the system you have to add all the tools that should have internet access to the firewall rules with exactly the ports they need. You should close every other port that is not needed by those applications. A good freeware that displays the list of currently open ports is currports.

I think those are the most important steps. If you have more let me know them.

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Then we have the Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware and Personal Firewall Guide which links to lots of review sites and had links to the best products of the market. There is also a Linux and BSD section which consists of links to sites that deal with securing those operating systems. If you are looking for security tools make sure you check the site out.

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Page loads a little bit slow but its worth the wait. I will check some of the tools out that I did not try out until now and if I find a gem review it here at ghacks.net.

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I will explain the basics of securing your computer, will tell you what you need to secure it and give you alternatives if there are any. But first of all, all programs that I name will be freeware or open source. We want a secure computer but don´t want to pay hundreds of $$ for it. There will also be some geeks who will comment that program XY is way better and pro than the program I named and that only people with no security understanding whatsoever will use. Don´t listen to them, there are many factors that play a role in selecting a suitable software. I tried to find the best mix between security and user friendliness.

I will recommend the following type of programs for your personal computer: Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Rootkit Checker, Autorun Checker and Process Checker.

Wait, no Firewall ? Yes no firewall, I will give you a short answer why there will be no firewall. This seems unusual but just wait a little more and you will know.

Before we start, let me give you a short advice. Running all these tools in the background does not make your system secure. Its more secure yes, but not totally. Therefor you should still use common sense when you do something on the internet, e.g. don´t click on mail attachments that are unknown to you aso.

Lets Start:

Anti-Virus:

There are unfortunately thousands of free anti-virus products out there, what we need is the following. It should be up to date, have internet updates and use few resources.

I suggest Antivir Personal Edition, its free, always up to date, uses only few resources and has a very good virus recognition rate. Alternatives would be Avast Antivirus and AVG Free Edition

Anti-Spyware:

Ad-Aware SE Personal, small and good, enough said. As an alternative Microsoft’s own Spyware Tool.

Rootkit-Checker:

Everyone knows about Rootkits since the Sony debacle but only a few know how to check their pc for a rootkit. Rootkit Revealer from Sysinternals does the job. Run this tool from time to time, its not necessary to run it all the time.

Autorun Checker:

There are numerous places that can hold programs that autorun at startup, its a hassle to check them manually. Run a autorun checker from time to time to check on all places and programs and disable the ones you won´t need. Your system will probably boot faster if you disable some.

I suggest Autoruns 8.4 from Sysinternals.

Process Checker:

Process Explorer from sysinternals tells you which handles or dll process have opened or loaded, small great tool.

No Firewall ?

The reasoning behind this is pretty simple. A software firewall gives the user a false sense of security. If you look up bugtraq for example you see lots and lots of firewall vulnerabilities. Every software that runs on your system raises the danger of exploits and backdoors. Many trojans and worms already know ways to bypass firewall systems and use save routes (that means use programs that are safe to use for the firewall) to execute their malicious code.

Another problem that occurs is that if a malicious tool is installed with admin rights it could alter firewall functions. You find a simple code on netfirms.com that does press the YES button of Zonealarm automatically. There are of course other more serious possibilities.

The conclusion would be, that firewalls are not secure and malicious code can find ways around the firewall and even manipulate it. Therefor i suggest you don´t use a firewall but do something different.

I suggest you download this small tool called Shutdown Windows Servers and run it on your system. This should be sufficient to avoid most of the nasty worms and trojans that float around lately without the use of a firewall. .Common sense of course applies

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Some of the tools features include:

# filters let you choose what data and time periods to log, display, analyze, and chart
# alerts offer real-time visual and audible signals of possible intrusion attempts
# historical analysis helps you find patterns of recent intrusion attempts
# summaries condense log histories for easier review
# user-selectable charts let you spot patterns of suspicious activities.

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In addition, CurrPorts allows you to close unwanted TCP connections, kill the process that opened the ports, and save the TCP/UDP ports information to HTML file , XML file, or to tab-delimited text file.

CurrPorts also automatically mark with pink color suspicious TCP/UDP ports owned by unidentified applications (Applications without version information and icons)

#only 36K, freeware, no system changes, download and run
#runs on all windows versions but older versions show less details

download nirsoft.net

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