Re: Real-world security stats

[Bruce Smith <bruce@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> 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!

--------------------------------------------
Bruce Smith                bruce@armintl.com
System Administrator / Network Administrator
Armstrong International, Inc.
Three Rivers, Michigan  49093  USA
http://www.armstrong-intl.com/
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