Security

ALWIL Software

www.avast.com 

Developer of the popular avast! series of antivirus and security solutions for home, small business, and enterprise users, ALWIL Software is based in the Czech Republic. ALWIL's BART CD offers corporate help desks and computer service shops a self-booting CD that can be used to clean up virus, registry, file, and disk problems on a Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 based system. Avast! 4 antivirus is available in a free edition for home and non-commercial use, and in commercial versions for Windows, Linux, Windows CE, and PalmOS.

CERT Coordination Center (CERT/CC)

www.cert.org 

This is a great site to visit to learn about new vulnerabilities on the Web. Information about viruses, bugs in important software products, and new attack programs can be found here. CERT is funded by the U.S. government and operates out of Carnegie Mellon University. CERT provides training courses and publications relating to security issues. If you want to keep yourself up-to-date, you can subscribe to the CERT Advisory Mailing List (highly recommended). In many cases, CERT quickly publishes fixes to security problems that occur on the Net. If you are a network administrator, or in a position of security administration for a network, you should definitely bookmark this website.

Computer Incident Advisory Capability (CIAC)

www.ciac.org 

This is another website operated by the U.S. government, specifically the Department of Energy. It functions much like CERT, by detecting and reporting on potential security issues on the Internet, and applications that are vulnerable to attack. CIAC offers training classes, and links to articles relating to security issues.

Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST)

www.first.org 

An international organization (of which CIAC is a member) is composed of both governmental organizations and academic ones, and is used to coordinate security incidents among these various members. Without a central focal point, many separate organizations would be working on similar problems or the same incident separately. FIRST enables member organizations to communicate with each other and thus speed up the process of disseminating information and resolving security issues on the Internet.

Gibson Research Corporation

www.grc.com 

Gibson Research Corporation (GRC), owned and operated by security guru and former InfoWorld columnist Steve Gibson, provides a wide range of network and system security software and tools.

GRC's main commercial product is SpinRite 6, a truly fantastic drive maintenance and data-recovery tool that is far more powerful than CHKDSK or other commercial disk-maintenance tools. SpinRite 6 is perfect for mixed Windows and Linux-based networks and clients, as it works on any x86-based system, regardless of operating system installed. However, GRC may be most famous for its ShieldsUp! Internet security test and LeakTest firewall test. GRC also offers many other free system and Internet security tutorials and downloads.

Grisoft

www.grisoft.com 

Grisoft is the developer of the popular AVG line of antivirus and security programs for Windows and Linux clients, email servers, and file servers. A free edition is available for home users. AVG also supports x64 editions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003.

Internet Firewalls: Frequently Asked Questions

www.interhack.net/pubs/fwfaq/ 

This FAQ contains voluminous information about firewalls and how you can use them to assist in protecting your network. The FAQ was created by Matt Curtin, Marcus J. Ranum, and Paul D. Robertson. Ranum was one of the original developers of early firewalls, so he should know what he is talking about. This FAQ is an excellent place to start learning about firewall techniques, as well as what they can or cannot do to protect your network. This site is a must for anyone who works with firewalls, whether a hardware or a software solution. To make things easier to understand, this FAQ contains diagrams that help to explain the concepts covered in this FAQ.

McAfee

www.mcafee.com 

McAfee is one of the world's leading major antivirus and network security companies, offering antivirus, anti-spam, intrusion detection, mobile device security, and other products to home, small-business, and enterprise users.

McAfee's Security Headquarters provides a comprehensive list of viruses and other threats, and also provides free removal tools for some of the most common threats.

NTBugtraq

www.ntbugtraq.com 

This is a valuable resource for those operating Windows operating systems. Although it was first set up to report on security issues relating to Windows NT, it has continued to grow to encompass the newer Microsoft operating systems and software. NTBugtraq is basically just a mailing list that you can sign up for to receive current security issues relating to Microsoft products. If you use any Windows products in your network, then this list (along with Microsoft's own mailing list) is a must for the network administrator. This mailing list is a two-way proposition. You can read about security issues, as well as post your own observations. There is also an archive of older posts that can be very useful for those who are just starting to learn about security issues relating to Microsoft products.

OpenSSL Project

www.openssl.org 

This site is dedicated to creating and supporting an open-source toolkit that you can use to develop Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) as well as Transport Layer Security (TLS) applications. You can find source code as well as documentation at this site. For more information about SSL, refer to Chapter 34, "The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Protocol."

Symantec

www.symantec.com 

Symantec is one of the giants of the network security and backup business, thanks in part to its purchase of Veritas in 2005. Symantec's small-business and SOHO network security and backup products include Norton Antivirus, Norton Internet Security, Backup Exec for Windows Small Business Server, Norton SystemWorks Premier, Norton Ghost, and Norton Personal Firewall. Symantec's enterprise security and backup products include Gateway Security firewall appliances; Backup Exec, NetBackup, and LiveState Recovery backup/restore products for various network operating systems; AntiVirus and Mail Security for various network, email, and gateways; and many others. Symantec also offers a free Security Check that includes online virus scanning and security tests.

Symantec Security Response

securityresponse.symantec.com 

This site is operated by Symantec, a major vendor of antivirus and other software. This site offers information about the latest viruses, as well as advisories about programs that expose your network to attack. The site's Threat List and Virus Encyclopedia link can give you a lot of information about recent malicious programs. Because this is a vendor site, you can also find links to purchasing vendors' products, as well as free tools that can be used to remove certain virus, malware, and other similar programs.

The Firewall Toolkit (FWTK)

www.fwtk.org 

The Firewall Toolkit consists of proxy applications that an advanced user or administrator can use to construct a firewall. This website provides the needed information. Chapter 45, "Firewalls," contains information about proxies and how they work. In that chapter you can learn the difference between proxies and packet filters, among other firewall techniques.

This website gives you the software needed to construct your own proxy applications. You can download the source (coded in the C language) from this site, as well as documentation and tutorials that can assist you if you want to use the FWTK in your network. Another note: Marcus J. Ranum, along with others at Digital Equipment Corporation, were instrumental in creating the first proxy-based firewall. It is available as a commercial product in addition to the software you can download from this site. The FWTK was developed as a marketable product by Digital, and was used by the U.S. government when it was first put online and needed some sort of protection for its connection to the ARPANET.

Trend Micro

www.trendmicro.com 

Trend Micro is a leading provider of antivirus and network security products for home, small-business, mobile, and enterprise users. Its PC-cillin antivirus program is also available as part of the PC-cillin Internet Security suite. TrendMicro also offers specialized security solutions for file server, email server, Internet gateway, mobile, and Linux platforms. For free online antivirus scanning, go to http://housecall.trendmicro.com; for free online spyware scanning, go to www.trendmicro.com/spyware-scan/.

Zone Labs

www.zonelabs.com 

Zone Labs (a CheckPoint company) provides one of the best two-way software firewalls available, the free ZoneAlarm. The commercial ZoneAlarm Pro product adds protection against new and existing malware and spyware programs, privacy and identity theft protection, email security, and wireless network protection. Zone Labs also includes ZoneAlarm Pro protection in various suites, including its comprehensive Zone Alarm Internet Security Suite, which also includes IM protection, parental controls, and antivirus.