Let's talk about security!
Welcome to 2018, the year of GDPR. Let's discuss some good home security habits. In today's blog, we will cover a simple tactic that will keep you and your family safe, secure and relatively inexpensive.
How many people have a personal firewall? I am not referring to the Windows defender or whatever software variant you might have preinstalled on your Operating System of choice. The easiest way to thwart some security issues is to have a physical firewall with accompanying services offered by a reputable company.
Such services are offered by WatchGuard, SonicWall, or other companies that design a small, low-cost system to be installed on a personal network. These devices are simple to configure and practically plug and play.
On that firewall, you need 3 services activated:
-Web block/IP blocking
-IP whitelisting/IP blacklisting
-The blocking of inbound and outbound traffic
Web blocking services typically check with several opensource or private lists of cataloged websites that are labeled as known good or known bad. This prevents the access of shady or unknown sources and prevents pop-ups from opening or downloading unwanted software. This lowers the chance of malware or ransomware from accessing your computer and network. Note, you can still download the malicious software yourself.
IP whitelisting and blacklisting allows you to block websites based on a category or individual site. With a combination of the two, you can choose to only allow specific site access, i.e., social media, entertainment, or specify the sites such as Instagram, FaceBook, YouTube, etc. You can also block in the same method such as adult websites, mature content, or other flags like the free flash game websites that are prone to viruses. The main difference you need to know is blacklisting allows any site to be accessed other than the specified list, or whitelisting which blocks every website other than your permitted sites in the same manner.
Finally, monitoring inbound and outbound traffic ensures that if something is downloaded, or another device on your network is accessed, that it can not call out to the control server. If a Botnet infects your machine, either a router, computer, Internet of Thing, or another internet connected device, the program is designed to call back to a command and control server. If you're monitoring the outbound traffic, the firewall will recognize the untrusted address and block the program from reaching out to its controller. This is similar to the function of ransomware which we can cover in another article.
The first place cybersecurity starts are with you. This still requires safe search habits and practicing general security habits. This is a good start to protecting a small business or home. There are many other things you can do to help increase security, but that is for another post!
//Caramon
