We've seen in the last lectures that there are so many attacks that can be launched even by script kiddies
that you may feel that the Internet is a very dangerous place. With hacks, scams, malware, ransomware and
many more, surfing the web has opened us up to many risks.
The good news is that by taking just a small handful of security measures we can considerably reduce
our exposure to all of these threats.
With some good tips you can greatly minimize the risk and the impact. As a network admin
you could take a lot of countermeasures to mitigate the attacks.
For each hack there is also a countermeasure
so please take a look again at the countermeasures
I've already explained for CDP, STP, DHCP or ARP attacks. Try to implement all of them!
As for an end user
here are some tips to get started.
Use the latest version of your browser and install all security updates of your operating system.
Never,
and by mean never, install cracked software or tools that crack commercial software. There could be
backdoors installed by the hackers.Stick with open source software
If you don't want to pay for commercial software; do not connect to websites using HTTP,
use only encrypted connections.
Never, but never, sent sensitive information over an unencrypted connection take seriously any security
warning your browser displays and don't continue on
if you get such a warning; it's much better to be safe than sorry.
There is also a browser extension called HTTPS everywhere that prevents HTTPS downgrade.
Install this extension; note that the DNS spoofing is still available and hackers see visited domains.
Set up two way
authentication for important websites.
If you have the possibility to use an application like Google Authenticator do prefer it over codes
sent by sms. Phone sims can be easily swapped. Do not search for important websites you want to visit
on Google; access those websites directly via your bookmarks! Google results you see can be easily faked
by a client site injection and you'll go to a fake website instead of the original one.
Do not visit weird websites, they can install trackers or other malware on your system. Switch your
internet providers DNS servers to a service like Open DNS.
It will make your internet faster, safer and more reliable.
It comes with domain filtering or pre configured
protection against malicious domains.
If you set it on your router to give these IPs of dns servers to all the hosts in your network,
it’s the easiest way to add parental and content filtering controls to every device in your home or your LAN.
You don't have to configure anything ,just to use the IPs they provide you as your DNS servers and you've
instantly activated domain filtering in our LAN. Let's
do it! On my windows machine I'll change the DNS server the WiFi interface uses and instead of the default
DNS server I'll put here an IP of a DNS server from Open DNS.
This one 208.67.222.220 and
OK; and close. And I'll visit a website like The Pirate Bay and we see that the site is blocked due to
content filtering; you, or a user of your network, cannot accidentally access a malicious website. Do
not install software by clicking on the links received in emails; install only official updates that
are digitally signed; even better do not respond to emails if they are not directly sent to you and they
seem weird. And if possible switch Windows to Linux and use it as your main operating system.
I've been using Linux as my main operating system for the last 15 years and I'm proud of it.
Linux Mint for example is a user friendly distribution that's similar to Windows.
Okay.
These were just a few tips to stay safe while browsing the web.
Let's go ahead and talk about anonymity.
Use Tor when you want to remain anonymous while surfing the web.
There is the Brave browser available that is a good choice when using Tor.
It has tor built in; this is Brave browser.
You create a new Tor connection in just a few seconds and remain anonymous.
Your source IP address will be hidden and all traffic encrypted in the Tor network.
Another solution is to use a VPN service.
There are a lot of VPNs available
just be sure to choose a good one.
Read the reviews and the other users' opinions.
Note that the VPN gateway can decrypt and read the traffic so it's important to be trustful and not
to save any logs.
And if you want to take anonymity to the next level
use a Linux distro like Tails, started live from a USB stick or run on it in a VM.
It aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity and helps you to use the Internet anonymously and circumvent
censorship.
All connections to the Internet are forced to go through the Tor network.
It will leave no trace on your computer
you are using, unless you ask it explicitly. Tails uses state of the art cryptographic tools to encrypt
your files, emails and messages.
Keep in mind that there is no such thing as 100 percent security and no matter what you do there is
always a low risk to be hacked; and to mitigate the impact of such an event.
Keep backups of your important files.