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Tech Security Far From Airtight

Posted on: Thursday, 30 June 2005, 18:00 CDT

Jun. 30--If you're worried about computer security, Faron Golden has a suggestion for you: Don't keep anything on your computer you wouldn't write on a postcard.

"Until we find a way to tame the Wild West of cyberspace, we are going to have to deal with the lawlessness of cyberspace," Golden said Tuesday night during a presentation on computer security sponsored by TalTech, a nonprofit group that focuses on digital technology.

Golden is operations manager for Integrated Computer Solutions Inc., a Montgomery, Ala., company that won a contract in March to do a statewide risk assessment for Florida government computer systems.

He said computer hackers will always be part of cyberspace and, despite rapid advances designed to thwart intruders, the combination of perverse human nature and money will be hard to defeat.

"One of the best ways to be hacked is advertise you are hack-proof," Golden said, drawing laughter from the audience.

No computer system, he said, is invulnerable, no matter what kind of technological features it boasts.

Hackers, Golden said, often attack a system just to prove they can. Once they are in, other folks see a way to make money using the illegally gained information, doubling the problem for law enforcement agencies trying to track them.

Jonathan Lyons, who owns Lyons Digital Media in Tallahassee, said he once tracked a hacker who had posted material on a Web site Lyons manages.

He went to the FBI Web site, posted the information and waited for an agent to call. Lyons said he's still waiting.

"If you haven't lost more than $10,000, you won't get a call," Golden told Lyons. "If it's not child pornography, or murder and mayhem ... you probably aren't going to get help."

Golden said law enforcement agencies are struggling to keep up with national security concerns involving computer use and rarely have the personnel to deal with smaller local issues.

In the past year, companies such as ChoicePoint, Lexis-Nexis, MasterCard and Bank of America have been victimized by lapses in security, accidental release of confidential data or by people who illegally gained access to sensitive data.

Lyon said he manages about 150 Web sites, and hackers specialize in gaining access to a host computer, then create data inside the computer that is displayed so their work can be seen.

One hacker from Brazil posted data on one of his Web sites, Lyons said, and sent him an anti-American tirade -- in Portuguese.

Frank Miller, who also works for Integrated Computer solutions in the company's Tallahassee office, said Lyons' problems are far more common than most people realize because the big problems, like the recent loss of credit card records by UPS, get more attention.

The glut of online transactions over the past few years also has Miller and Lyons worried about personal and commercial computer security.

Golden does not bank online or pay bills online. He says if you do, make sure your Internet browser is operating in an encrypted mode and that as soon as you finish the transaction, you empty the browser's cache and history, quit the program and restart it.

To empty your web browser's cache and history -- using Netscape, Outlook or Outlook Express -- find "preferences" under the "Edit" pull-down box, click on it and scroll down until you see "advanced."

Click on that selection and a dialogue box will appear that allows you to empty the browser's cache and history.

That will keep anyone who gains access to your computer from seeing your personal financial data, he said.

And the growth of broadband connections to personal computers has created another problem, he said.

Some personal computers have a feature called "wake on lan (for local area network)." Even if you turn off your computer, Golden says, if you are connected to a DSL line or cable modem, a hacker can find your computer, send it a command to turn it on and access your data.

That, he says, is the reason for his post card analogy.

But Golden and Miller also say human nature plays as big a part in illegal information access as hackers. Golden talks about a recent security survey he did at an office.

He walked through the office and turned over five keyboards: Three of the keyboards had passwords on the underside.

"It's just one of those things we are all prone to do," he said. "I think user awareness is so important."

Lyons agreed.

"Here is the reality," he said. "You can take every security precaution you want, and the weakest link is going to be the human link. Use some common sense."

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Source: Tallahassee Democrat (Tallahassee, Fla.)

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