Safeguarding the network system
The network system or simply networking is an area that has improved security over the years. It is also the area that is exploited the most since through it, potential attackers could gain access to unauthorized resources from a remote location. However, there are a few points that should be highlighted. Whenever possible, do not enable any of the following services/protocols and 'siblings'.
Connectivity services: There are several protocols (communication services) that were popular in the early days of the Internet. Those protocols are very weak in terms of security as they are 'clear text' protocols; that is, user IDs and passwords are transmitted without encryption. Among them, the following are the most common:
FTP
telnet
TFTP
rlogin
File sharing services: Another area in which production servers may be compromised is that of file sharing. The two most popular are shown next. They are application level protocols that lack the use of encryption, thus...