Re: [cobalt-users] Postentry installation help

[elmer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

On Thu, 15 Feb 2001, Dan wrote:

} After the install I could visibly
} see 7 hack attempts had occured in
} the space of a half an hour
} after confirming that Postentry had
} been installed on my site.

	Just trying to keep the paranoia down to a loar roar. A scan
is not necessarily a hack attempt, or even indicative of the port
scanned.

	A lot of them are the result of services that run on Windows
machines by default and most often without the knowledge of the
machines owner. There are a number, for example, of services that
scan servers for their corporate clients. Personally I have a rather
low opinion of this kind of thing but they're not looking for
exploits but rather for targets for their corporate clients to sue.
It's no secret that right now the recording industry is actively
searching for Napster clones. Odds are they are doing this by
scanning the appropriate ports.

	Yes, being aware is a good idea but a portsentry alarm does
not mean that the barbarians are at the gate. Yes, most of the time
it means that someone is indeed scanning you but more often than not
the responsible party doesn't have a clue - they just powered up
their Windows powered computer so they can get their porn fix.