Check For Open Ports - Hacker Entry

richard burton · From: Britain

Beware!!
I did the shields up test a couple of years ago, and boy was I sorry.
I must have done something wrong, because it ruined my hard drive, I tried reformatting several times, but in the end I had to put a new hard drive in the computer.
R B

Dave Potter · From: Texas

I've used the ShieldsUp utility numerous times. It's quite informative, and quite harmless. It simply tries to access your computer using the various ports which are part of every PC's architecture. It's benign, and doesn't affect hard drives.

As Bob has pointed out, every time you connect to the internet, you become a new target of opportunity for miscreants, who use automated port scanners to gain access to your computer and use it for their own purposes. Make no mistake - an unprotected computer (meaning ports open to incoming traffic) on the internet is chum in the water to hackers. These misguided individuals do not have your best interests at heart, to put it mildly.

The ShieldsUp site is a way you can ensure your firewall is installed and set up properly to guard against malicious access to your computer.

[This message was edited by Dave Potter on 02 August 2005 at 12:07 PM.]

Wiz Feinberg · From: Mid-Michigan, USA

I have had a link to Shields UP on my website for at least 5 years, and have never had any ill effects from using it. If you have damage to your hard drive look elsewhere for the cause (they do develop bad sectors). If you had open ports before you went to GRC Shields UP you are at risk already.

Shields up is an online vulnerability scanner that can scan up to 65535 TCP or UDP ports. It reports whether your ports are Open (real bad), Closed (a little safer, but not out of the woods), or Stealth (best). If you run a Shields UP port scan and find open ports you are probably already hacked! Get your computer checked for backdoors, trojan downloaders, spyware, browser hijackers, adware and email relay proxies. The Spywareinfo forums are an excellent resource.

It takes approximately 10 to 60 seconds online for a hostile TCP scan to locate a computer with an open exploitable port and infect it. Only a few ISPs block the most dangerous TCP ports from incoming flak. Comcast is known to have blocked the common filesharing ports after the outbreak of the MSBlast virus, but I cannot say if they are still doing so.

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Bob "Wiz" Feinberg
1983 Rosewood Emmons D10 Push-Pull, with 8 pedals and 9 knee levers (Crawford Cluster), Lawrence LXR-16 pickups and aluminum necks. Nashville 400 amp with Peavey Mod. Emmons pedalbar mounted, and Goodrich LDR floor volume pedals.
I use and endorse Jagwire Strings and accessories.

Keep Steelin' but don't get caught!

Visit my Wiztunes website at: http://www.wiztunes.com/
or my main website: Wizcrafts Computer Services

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