Types of Attack
Before we talk about how to defend your computer against attack, let’s briefly go through the types of attacks you’re facing. Hackers can work their way into your computer and network using several methods. Here are some of them:
• Password cracking—Given a user account name, so-called “cracking” software can tirelessly try dictionary words, proper names, and random combinations in the hope of guessing a correct password. If your passwords aren’t complex (that is, if they’re not composed of upper- and lowercase letters, numbers, and punctuation characters), this doesn’t take long to accomplish. If you make your computer(s) accessible over the Internet via Remote Desktop or if you run a public FTP, web, or email server, I can ...
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