*CONCLUSION*

While our young hacker Joe is eating dinner, a system administrator is reading his e-mail. As he reads, a grim looks washes over his tired face. After reading a few lines of the e-mail, which contains some excerpts from his system logs, he realizes what has just happened less than an hour earlier that evening. "Good thing I went to that security conference," he thinks to himself,"...and not a minute too soon."  He goes to the coffee machine to grab another cup of stale coffee and heads towards the computer lab.

About an hour and a half later, Joe heads upstairs to his favorite pasttime. He logs in thinking "And now the fun begins...".  He types a few commands, followed by a few more.  As he types, his grin turns to a look of confusion and then frustration. Unfortunately for Joe, the machine he hacked before dinner was nowhere to be found.

Many miles away, the system administrator sits with his feet upon a desk. As he drinks his last cup of coffee, a smile appears on his face. Across his computer screen flash messages of failed connection attempts.

Hacker activity is and will continue to be on the rise.  As of yet there is no way to guarantee the security of a system, but with a proactive approach and some practice, it can be hardened to attacks.  Hopefully the information presented here has, at least, awakened you to the reality of insufficient security in networked computing systems. The information these security measures protect may just be your own.

[Index] [Introduction] [Attack] [Detection / Recovery] [Prevention] [Conclusion] [Credits]