If you have Windows
98 operating system installed on your University computer and you
maintain Norton Antivirus and/or a desktop firewall application, you
are really not much of a target for “hackers.” The main threat you
would face would be the installation of a Trojan Horse remote control
program and the “real time” protection feature of your antivirus software
would prevent that from occurring 99% of the time.
As many of you
are aware, though, Microsoft has already introduced a couple of updated
operating systems and at some point in the future, will no longer
be supporting the Windows 98 operating system. At that point, you
will find it necessary to upgrade to either Windows 2000 or XP. Perhaps
your office has already upgraded your workstation to one of these
operating systems.
At any rate, Windows
2000 and XP are definitely major targets for would-be intruders. In
fact, over 370 systems on this campus with Windows 2000 and XP installed
were broken into over the last six months!
One of the primary
reasons why Windows 2000 and XP are so attractive to hackers is because
of the “administrator” account(s) on these systems. Once they gain
access to that account, normally through running automated software
that can “crack” or figure out the password, they have total control
of that system and can install all types of rogue programs remotely.
Antivirus software can’t prevent that type of attack.
Therefore, it
is very important that you assign a “hard to guess” password that
contains upper and lower-case letters, numerals and symbols. The length
should be at least 6-8 characters. You should not use a word that
is found in the dictionary. A pass-phrase is much better.
You can find more
helpful tips and information at http://www.gsu.edu/security