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Thread: Cable Modem Security

  1. #1
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    Cable Modem Security

    My wife & I recently moved into a new apartment complex. The company that owns it offers, among other services, cable modem Internet access. Since our dial-up service was giving us way too many dropouts, and the slowest version (128K) of the cable modem service is only twenty bucks a month, we decided to get it.

    So far, it has been working fine. However, I noticed that when the apartment employees were helping us get set up they mentioned absolutely *nothing* about security. There was not a word about the added exposure associated with "always on" systems like cable modems. I have McAfee's anti-virus & firewall running (Home Edition of each), but we all know that such software-based setups are not necessarily the best. I'm considering a hardware firewall, but I don't know very much about how to find the best value.

    Here's my request: since my provider seems to be both clueless & apathetic, maybe someone with a bit more experience than me would care to build a fire under their tail. One of you hackers out there should be able to run a script or something for a simulated attack that would find some of the security holes that doubtless exist here. I could then pass the info along to the appropriate people and get some discussion going. If you work for a company that deals in cyber-security, this might be a way for you to drum up some business.

    The company that owns this apartment complex has their web site at:

    http://www.lindseycom.com

    The snail address of the local apartment management:

    The Greens
    3126A E Valley Water Mill Road
    Springfield MO 65803

    This should be enough info to give any decent hacker a start.

    If anyone out there wants to contact me privately, here's my email address: jj2kk4@yahoo.com

    Thanks.

    Joel

  2. #2
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    well learning abt security is surely nice and necessary................
    though i dont know abt cable modems so someone else would help you out....
    but i have a few suggestions to point out...........
    first of all never make ur email id public like this...............its a bad idea....it invites spam.........
    never never give out ur address like this.........it may let u in troble.............
    if someone would like to contact you then AO has the facility called PM(private Message) which is better...
    so u could instead say pls PM me if you want to...........
    i hope next time you will keep this in mind.........
    guru@linux:~> who I grep -i blonde I talk; cd ~; wine; talk; touch; unzip; touch; strip; gasp; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; gasp; umount; make clean; sleep;

  3. #3
    Honestly i cannot hack your cable modem but I have a suggestion for you. I recently purchased cable modem for myself and i was worried about security too. One of the things that you can do is buy a router that comes with a firewall. The router will have a different IP address that way you're hiding yours. If a person hacks you, all they're going to get is the router and not your personal files. Also, make sure that you change the password on the router as most hackers WILL try to guess the default password that comes with it and they WILL get it. Good Luck and enjoy the fast internet
    [gloworange]\"Imagine a school with children that can read and write, but with teachers who cannot, and you have a metaphor of the Information Age in which we live.\" — Peter Cochrane[/gloworange]

  4. #4
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    The router will have a different IP address that way you're hiding yours. If a person hacks you, all they're going to get is the router and not your personal files.
    How exactly is this going to happen? The router should have the same ip address that you normally have, it just tranlates it to a different one (usually non-routable) and forwards the traffic to the correct box behind it. Not to mention if someone is good enough to get into your router I doubt they are going to have much of a problem looking at the router's logs and seeing what machines have been assigned what ips, and wham, they are right where you think they couldn't go.
    Listen, asking others to hack something for you (even if you don't want any damage done) is often considered bad form. If you already know that the security is poor, and you bring this to their attention, and they don't do anything about it, then so be it. Learn how to and then protect yourself. Don't rely on them, even if they were good at it. It really is your responsibility anyway.
    Good luck

  5. #5
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    You say that they didn't tell you about the added security you may need. Well if you go to a car dealership and buy a sportscar are they supposed to tell you that there are more chances of you getting into a car accident? This is just the way I see it. You can always say "they didn't tell me" but in the end if something does happen it will be your info and your system that gets hacked. You really shouldn't point the finger at them. Remember when you point a finger at someone there are 3 pointing back at you. So install anti virus software and firewall keep them both up to date with all the current patches and do the same for the OS and it will give you a good start in protecting your pc.

  6. #6
    Senior Member gore's Avatar
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    In your Macfee firewall, open it up and do the security test. Thats actually a nice little feature built in. Also if you have a 486 or so laying around the house you now have more options as you can install a version of Linux or BSD to act as a firewall or router. Also, cable is actually safer than what people lead you to believe. My connection is quick as hell and i can download at 2.2 MBs a second depending on the server im downloading from. I havnt had a prob yet.

    Just keep everything up to date and dont let the hacker penis of uptime get in the way of installing a patch and you should be fine. Also search around and read up on hacking. After you start to understand it, you will prolly start figuring things out and then have a new understanding of security in general.

  7. #7
    Senior Member IKnowNot's Avatar
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    Am I the only one who noticed this, or is everyone else just ignoring it

    One of you hackers out there should be able to run a script or something for a simulated attack that would find some of the security holes that doubtless exist here.
    Yea, I'm just going to go right out, hack their DOCSIS modem, then go after thier box to build up my business, then go to jail.

    Doesn't ANYONE read the FAQs ??
    " And maddest of all, to see life as it is and not as it should be" --Miguel Cervantes

  8. #8
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    It's not necessary for someone to attempt a "hack," to find your security holes. Run a program like Retina for XP or Nessus for Linux. If you don't have/can't understand those, visit Shield's up to assess the vulnerability of your system. This way, it's legal, and there are logs to present to your apartment managers that describe the holes in detail.

    Corn

  9. #9
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    Asking us to hack something is illegal and would land us in trouble if the building management did something once you submitted the info to them.

    Although the management could have improved the security on their network it is ultimately your job to protect your own information. Even when you are in the office if information is taken from your machine, even though it should be the IT dept job to secure the infomation. The information stolen is yours and if its that important to you then you should be securing it yourself or getting help to secure it.

    A couple of tips for you to help you along the way.... Get anti virus software and keep the definitions up to date, firewall and get the latest patches and also keep your OS patched to prevent people from using whatever flaws are in the system to get your information. Use difficult to guess passwords that are not all alphas. Change them regularly. If u want to you could get a router with NAT but this will only block out the script kiddies that your firewall will definitely block if u have configured it correctly. And finally after all this is done run a security scan on your system to check for any vulnerabilities and look for solutions to patch those vulnerabilities.

    There is a lot of information out there on how to secure your system and stuff like that and reading up on this will help. If you have any others questions, the people at this website will be glad to help out with providing info or links to where u can read up on it but we wont hack into any systems for anyone.

  10. #10
    The router that I was refering too Masks my IP address and shows something totally different over the net. Sorry i wasnt very specific.
    [gloworange]\"Imagine a school with children that can read and write, but with teachers who cannot, and you have a metaphor of the Information Age in which we live.\" — Peter Cochrane[/gloworange]

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