Security+ - Identifying Common and Nonessential Services
A computer system that is not connected to a network, or the internet (or both) is a rare thing indeed in this day and age. While this provides a considerable amount of power and flexibility to the user in terms of access to remote services, data and information it carries with it great risks. It is not too much of an exaggeration to state that any computer connected to a network is in danger of being attacked in some way. For proof of this fact look no further than the secure computer environments used by government defense organizations. To these people, a secure computer is located in a physically secure area where users pass through stringent security checks and are searched to ensure they are not carrying any portable storage devices or media which would allow software to be installed in a secure system. The computers themselves, whilst possible networked to each other, have absolutely no contact to the outside world.
Obviously, such levels of security are beyond the needs and means of the average user or company and, quite frankly, disconnecting all the computers in an enterprise from the outside would negate he whole purpose of IT infrastructure. The best approach, therefore, is to make sure that all computer systems are as secure as possible. This requires a multi-layered defense strategy, the most basic of which is ensuring that only necessary ports and services are available on all systems on a network. In this chapter we will look at this strategy in detail.
Understanding Ports and Services
The predominant network communications protocol in use these days is TCP/IP. It is the protocol used by the internet and as such as swept away most of the formerly popular protocols used for local area networks (LANs). TCP/IP defines a number of services which can be provided by an operating system. Such services include HTTP for running a web server, FTP for allowing file transfers, SSH and Telnet for providing remote login access and SMTP for the transport of email messages. Each service is in turn.
