Unauthorized access to information and various methods of protection against this undesirable event fall into the sphere of interests of the average Internet user more and more often. Interest in this topic is growing on the news from the world of cyber war, information espionage, and after reading messages about the appearance of all new Trojan programs, alarm reports about which are often distributed by anti-virus software manufacturers. All this shaft of negative information creates the illusion of the inability to prevent unauthorized access to a computer by a simple user. In fact, the truth, as usual, is nearby. And considering possible threats to your PC, you need to evaluate not ephemeral and expensive hacking methods using “eighty-level hackers”, but soberly assess who might need the information that is stored in it. And, therefore, choose protection methods proportional to the threat.
Today, the main threats to the security of a computer connected to the network are hidden on infected sites and sending copies of their virus software to botnet networks via the Internet. Interestingly, the first and second do it to expand the list of infected computers. Indeed, the larger the network, the more opportunities (including obtaining unauthorized access to infected machines) from its operator.
No less dangerous are programs that automatically scan certain ports of random computers for an attempt to pick up passwords for remote control tools running on them (RAdmin, TeamViewer, Remote access to the Windows desktop, etc).
As can be seen in both the first and second cases, the infection occurs without human intervention, the attackers set traps and just wait for the next “victim” to fly into them - an unprotected PC.
In addition to these two, the most common methods of penetration, there are others, such as unauthorized access to information about passwords and keys to various payment systems (WebMoney, YandexMoney, etc.). To obtain this type of data, criminals often have to resort to very tricky combinations and write quite sophisticated software, luring the user with promises of “free cheese”.
But all these and many other methods of penetrating a computer system are difficult or almost impossible to imagine without connecting this system to the Intranet or the Internet. So protecting your PC from unauthorized access should take this fact into account. Counteraction should focus primarily on the maximum restriction of access to a PC from outside using a firewall, the most famous and common solutions: Agnitum outpost, Kerio Winroute, Zone Alarm, Agava Firewall. And to check the allowed incoming traffic, it is advisable to use anti-virus solutions that can control this traffic for the penetration of malicious content and programs, as well as stopping the activity of infected sites. Among the most famous antiviruses that can do all this and much more, are the products of Eset, Kaspersky Lab, Avast, AVG and others.
The software package from a good firewall (configured using the configuration wizard for maximum security) and an antivirus with the latest databases ensures that your computer will be bypassed by both botnet networks and numerous hacker and infected sites. All kinds of port scanners and other scum, trying to penetrate the computer through the vulnerabilities that exist in every unprotected PC, break their teeth about such protection. In other words, unauthorized access to such a system will become extremely difficult, and in order to nevertheless break through the protection, you will have to use such an arsenal of funds, the costs of which will exceed all the benefits of the hacking results. Which is what we need.