Why you need a firewall

[Chris Tresco]

You could argue the same for a Windows box... if maintained correctly ,
it doesn't need a firewall.  But alas... 


On Thu, 2002-10-24 at 12:29, Derek Atkins wrote:
> Yes, but the vast majority of those probes are against Windows..
> Yes, you need a firewall to protect the Internet from Windows (no,
> I do not look at it the other way around! ;)
> 
> However, I still maintain that a properly-maintained Linux box does
> not need a firewall.
> 
> -derek
> 
> Chris Tresco <rardoe at rarcom.com> writes:
> 
> > Something to add...
> > 
> > A lot of users out there would be absoltely flabberghasted (sp?) at the
> > number of times per day my linux box acting as a router/firewall for my
> > ATT Broadband cable connection is probed or attacked.  I run snort to
> > log these things... I honestly get at least 100 attack attempts and
> > probes per day.... it only takes one of these to work successfully for
> > someone to be compromised.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > On Thu, 2002-10-24 at 11:48, David Kramer wrote:
> > > I'm sure most of you heard that on Tuesday, the internet's root DNS servers 
> > > were crippled by a Denial Of Service (DOS) attack, where the machines were 
> > > flooded with endless garbage IP packets so the real DNS requests couldn't get 
> > > through.
> > > 
> > > What I recently learned, though, is this was really a Distributed Denial Of 
> > > Service (DDOS) attack.  That means that hackers hacked into hundreds of other 
> > > peoples' home computers and then remotely commanded them all to attach the 
> > > root DNS servers at the same time, probably without the owners' knowledge.
> > > 
> > > What I'm trying to point out here is that it's easy to say "well, I don't have 
> > > any important data on my machine hooked up to a cablemodem or DSL line, so I 
> > > don't need a firewall", but that doesn't mean your machine can't be used by 
> > > hackers to hurt others.
> > > 
> > > -------------------------------------------------------------------
> > > DDDD   David Kramer                           http://thekramers.net
> > > DK KD  
> > > DKK D  "Where's the kaboom?  There was supposed to be an
> > > DK KD  earth-shattering kaboom."
> > > DDDD                                           - Marvin the Martian
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> > 
> > 
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> -- 
>        Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
>        Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
>        URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
>        warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available
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