Description:
In the good old days of computing--i.e., the early '90s--the only fears the average user had from hacker attacks were viruses passed from PC to PC via floppy disks like a traditional cold. Now, with everyone hacking and coughing in the same giant room of the World Wide Web, your system's become vulnerable to Trojan Horse attacks, back-door affronts, and the same plain old viruses that are now much easier to catch. So it's a good idea--especially if you have an always-on connection, such as cable access or DSL--to provide yourself with some protection. That's where Network ICE's BlackICE Defender comes in. This personal firewall, now in version 2.1, is relatively inexpensive, easy to configure, and unobtrusive to your daily use. And, if you really want to find out who's after you, BlackICE contains the tools to allow you to attempt to trace your intruders back to the source. Setup takes only a few minutes and then it's up and running at a default level of protection, Cautious (it goes up to Nervous and then Paranoid, but the higher settings could interfere with your normal Web or home network activities). You can leave it alone, and it will record any attempts to probe or connect to your system as well as alert you when the attempts occur. A visit to the Shield's UP! page at Gibson Research Corporation (www.grc.com), which simulates various hacker attacks, showed that Cautious was more than enough to ward off even strong attempts to infiltrate. Earlier versions of BlackICE met with complaints about the difficult-to-understand interface. While 2.1 still contains some technical terms, it also uses the advICE feature to open a Web site that explains each type of hack attempt, from innocent attempts to connect to a standard HTTP server to more coercive SubSeven Trojan Horse attacks. Unlike a lot of other firewalls, BlackICE keeps track of any information it can glean from intruders and stores it, allowing you to report serious offenders to your ISP. You can also block or trust specific intruders, so you won't be bothered by other networked PCs that you know should have access to your system. While BlackICE isn't as easy to use as some other firewalls, it's much easier than it used to be and it offers much more powerful tools for those users who want to fight back against hackers. --J. Curtis
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