Re: Real-world security stats

[Dirk H Bartley <dbartley@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Bruce Smith wrote:
> 
> > Bruce Schneier is one of the net's leading security experts. His
> > Crypto-gram for this month includes some interesting statistics on
> > internet security.  Each individual sentence in the paragraph below
> > should fill your heart with cold terror :)
> >
> > > A random computer on the Internet is scanned dozens of
> > > times a day.  The life expectancy of a default installation
> > > of a Red Hat 6.2 server, or the time before someone
> > > successfully hacks it, is less than 72 hours.
> 
> I hope he's talking about a stock install (without updates)!  :-)
> 
> > > A common
> > > home user setup, with Windows 98 and file sharing enabled,
> > > was hacked five times in four days. Systems are subjected
> > > to NetBIOS scans an average of 17 times a day.  And the
> > > fastest time for a server being hacked: 15 minutes after
> > > plugging it into the network.
> >
> > http://www.counterpane.com/crypto-gram.html
> 
> My firewall logs at work confirm he's correct about the
> constant scanning.  Thanks for the link!
> 

My firewall logs at home would concur with the above mentioned frequency. 
Especially since I changed from net-link dial up to charter cable modem the
frequency doubled.  I guess a computer with a cable modem is a sweeter target
with the higher bandwidth.

Dirk