Security: Why Changing a Port Isn’t Enough

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Security: Why Changing a Port Isn’t Enough
Filed under Featured, Security.

So many people are changing the default ports for remote access to ’secure’ against brute force attacks and port scanning from malicious attackers. This is simply not enough to protect yourself from being hacked.

Tools like Tenable Nessus and Nmap, will detect what service you are running, no matter what the port is. These tools are freely available to anyone on the Internet.

Proof of concept Nmap:

Nmap scan

Proof of concept Nessus:

Nessus Scan

Solutions:

Restrict IP address access via application settings
Restrict IP address access via firewall
Implement an IDS system like Snort or OSSEC
Monitor Log files with software such as Fail2ban

I hope you understand how important it is to have multiple ways of securing your systems. There are a plethora of open source softwares to help you with this on both Windows and Linux. Although Nmap and Nessus can be used in a malicious way, they can also help you secure your network by pointing out security vulnerabilities. And if you have any questions at all, please leave them in the comments.

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