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Editor's Notes: December 13, 2000...
* Knock,
knock! Who's There?
__ In the past, few people were ever too concerned about
Macintosh security, and we've all been very smug about our relatively hack-free little
corner of the world. Did you upgrade to the new Microsoft Explorer? Are you running
OS/X? Did you follow the wave of information that rippled through the User Group
community last May? Then you'd better GET concerned about security.
__ Considering the recent rash of articles in Wired,
Business 2.0, Newsweek and others, we're all in for some rather rude surprises as
the leading technology companies make their move to more fully integrate desktop
computer operating systems with the web.
__ When last week's Newsweek article (Dec. 3, Levy)
the Mac community experienced a roar of loud kissing noises, flag-waving and 'sightings'
reports, all tolling the news that Mac gets main stream news coverage. Yes, it was
cool to see the old guard (Hertzfield and the others) fashioning our future interfaces,
and even the yarn about Jobs, and the story of Aqua brought a little smile. But it
seems, at least to me, the insidious underlying meaning of what those writers were
saying escaped everyone. As the lines drawn between personal computing and web surfing
fade into oblivion, what happens to our personal security -- not to mention bandwidth?
__ As I ponder these issues, along comes a nice note
from Alan Oppenheimer asking if I would mention his new product "WHO'S THERE?"
FIREWALL ADVISOR for the Macintosh.
__ This public beta release of "Who's There?"
could just be the first wake-up call for Mac users' Internet security. Some might
snicker at helping users analyze and investigate the ever-increasing number of access
attempts to their Macintosh -- but I have to wonder how soon we'll be needing this
sort of software. When will the time come to determine the level of risk of an "attack"
-- the name, email address and phone number of an administrator associated with the
attacker's network. Were you ever asked to disconnect your virus software -- by a
software vendor? Sure, just about every time you install something. And you take
them at face value don't you? We all do.
__ Maybe I'm just paranoid. Maybe I should place
unquestioning trust in those who would want to maintain a perpetual connection to
my computer. Perhaps I shouldn't mind if Explorer pings Microsoft each time I log
onto the web. Maybe it doesn't matter that the ever-growing number of computers with
"always on" connections have experienced a significant increase in the
number of hackers. Maybe I'm crying wolf?
__ Personal firewalls have been developed to thwart
those attempts. As the number of attempts have increased, however, users have become
increasingly confused as to the degree to which they should be worried about the
attempts and what they can do in response. "Who's There?" is said to work
with the user's firewall to answer those questions.
__ If you're one of those who doesn't really like the
idea of others snooping into your personal computer, then you should take a look
at "Who's There Firewall Advisor" -- I know I sure will.
Fred Showker
More information: http://www.opendoor.com/whosthere/
From : Fred Showker, Editor/Publisher,
User Group Network News: December 13 User Group Network News Service at http://www.user-groups.net/news/index.html.
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