Think about broadband usage security from frequent theft of ADSL accounts

Recently, major media and related forums have reported the theft of Netcom's ADSL user account from time to time. When a user browses the Internet, a message similar to "the system detects that another computer is using the user to access the Internet. Please log on again" appears, this is a trap where hackers defraud ADSL accounts and passwords. Because China Netcom's ADSL account can be used not only to access the Internet, but also to purchase game points online and pay Video-on-Demand charges, and the expenses are usually paid together with the landline phone fee of the user, if the account is stolen, the user may inadvertently lose a fee.

This type of event is already raging on the Internet, and many netizens have complained that ISP providers cannot take good protection measures to protect the most basic security for users to access the Internet-accounts and passwords, what is the service quality? Of course, this is only because the majority of Internet users are venting their emotions, but it also reflects the seriousness of today's network security. So, as an ordinary user, how should we protect our rights, how to ensure the security of personal broadband usage?

I. official attitude

For the recent frequent theft of ADSL accounts, Beijing Netcom officials said that in the near future, the network technology level will be started to effectively prevent the upgrade of ADSL account theft. Beijing Netcom also reminds netizens that they should promptly update their computer systems and anti-virus software to defend against "hacker" attacks, and regularly query consumption details through the online self-service system; do not log on to this page when you receive a page with a suspected account theft.

If a user has logged on to a page suspected of account theft, he or she should immediately change the account password to avoid losses. Meanwhile, the staff of the Customer Service Center of Beijing Communications Company said: "The accounts are stolen. ", It is recommended that you keep your internet account and password properly, and do not tell others as much as possible, so that the chances of theft are relatively small.

Ii. In-depth Analysis

It is worth noting that Netcom has made a very rapid response to the theft incident and has begun to handle the losses caused to users. Looking into the cause of account theft, there are still some technical mistakes made by China Netcom: its ADSL uses telephone lines for transmission, and one broadband line supports one account password, wherever it is, as long as the account and password are correct, you can log on to the Internet. Instead, you do not understand that you can only log on to the network by entering the correct account and password by using the telephone line port bound to the number.

In addition, some unscrupulous people use malicious means to illegally steal users' broadband access accounts. The main manifestations and ways of stealing are as follows:

1. Use the software to view the "*" Password

For convenience, many users choose to save the password in the dial-up software. In systems earlier than Windows XP, the Saved Password is displayed, in this way, you do not need to enter the password every time you access the internet. Saving your password also increases your risk. If someone who is not willing to contact your computer can use the software to view the asterisk password, you can easily know the real password behind the asterisk.

2. Use a dedicated tool to read the dial-up network password

Senior "hackers" can write or find a dedicated tool for reading the dial-up network password from the relevant hacker site to read the user name and password of the ADSL account, for example, the Dialupass tool.

3. System Vulnerability intrusion

Hackers exploit the IE6 vulnerability to create Web Trojans and steal various user accounts. This includes, of course, stealing broadband Internet access accounts.

4. Weak Password intrusion

It is to use some scanning tools to scan machines with weak passwords to easily steal bandwidth accounts.

Iii. Preventive measures

After a rough analysis of the root causes of such phenomena in the previous sections of this article, we can easily see that, as the ISP side, there are certainly immature technologies; however, it is more important to improve security awareness and take necessary network security measures. After all, this type of phenomenon is intended for users. The following briefly proposes some countermeasures. These measures may have been commonplace, but they are practical:

1. Operating System Account Security

First of all, it is also the minimum, that is, to set a password for the system administrator account, because this account cannot be deleted, and the password cannot be left blank even if not used. Although some users have set the administrator account password, they have created several other accounts without a password, which is also dangerous.

2. Install firewall software

Anti-virus software and firewalls are traditional security measures. You only need to make some settings after installing this type of software. For example, firewall software generally does not have strict prevention for LAN hosts in the default settings. At the same time, the firewall may also have vulnerabilities. Therefore, it is necessary to configure such software by referring to relevant technical documents.

3. Delete the. pwl file

In the Windows directory, pwl "is the password file with the suffix,". pwl is short for password. It stores all the passwords you have entered, including the system logon password and broadband account password.

Therefore, we recommend that you delete these pwl files frequently to avoid leaving the password on the hard disk.

4. other security considerations

There are also more preventive measures for different computer environments. For example, patch your operating system in a timely manner, often use the vulnerability scanning function of anti-virus software, reject attractive advertisement traps in the network, and stay alert on the Internet.

Iv. analysis summary

Broadband security aside from the various problems of individual users. For the ISP side, the existing network hardware devices cannot meet the existing requirements, resulting in difficulties in user authentication. If each broadband account and telephone line can be bound, A single account can only be used on one line. It seems that many security problems can be solved at present. But in fact, such considerations need to be constrained by too many factors.

As an end user, although technical problems of such ISPs cannot be solved, as mentioned in this Article, the key is to improve their awareness of defense. In the open world of the Internet, our own things are stolen. In fact, we should also reflect on ourselves!