Privacy Defended: Protecting Yourself Online

Port Restrictions

Earlier in the chapter, we discussed the possible threats that open ports pose to the security of the system. When an attacker has the ability to contact an open port, he can launch an attack against the system if a known vulnerability exists. Because your home system is not behind a corporate firewall, you need some protection against attackers looking for open ports. Chapter 11 discusses third-party personal firewalls available to the home user; even without a third-party package, however, Windows 2000 comes with some built-in port filtering capability.

You can find a list of open ports on your local system at %systemroot%\drivers\etc\services. Port restrictions can be implemented using the TCP/IP Security console located ...