Earth Sciences network firewall tightened on June 25, 2007
June 22, 2007
A computer network firewall was enabled for the School of Earth Sciences on May 30, 2007 (see details) that regulates incoming network connections to common services, such as blocking traffic to known insecure services.
Traffic to random TCP ports used by rare or unknown services was allowed to continue for a few weeks so those patterns could be analyzed. A few firewall rules were tweaked in response. The remaining incoming connections all appear to be for peer-to-peer file sharing services.
At 9:00 a.m. on Monday, June 25, 2007, the firewall rules will be tightened to block incoming connections to all random TCP ports. Basically, anything not listed in the Earth Sciences firewall ruleset will be blocked. The purpose is to increase security against self-propagating worms or other malware that uses random TCP ports.
Anyone running a peer-to-peer file sharing program on an Earth Sciences computer, such as Gnutella or Bittorrent, may find that it stops working after the firewall rules are tightened on June 25. Most such software can operate in a "firewall mode" to get around this new restriction. Peer-to-peer file sharing software is not supported in the School of Earth Sciences. If your peer-to-peer software stops working after the firewall rule change on June 25, it is entirely your responsibility to research and implement any needed fixes. No help will be provided by the School or CRC IT staff.
Please be aware that peer-to-peer file sharing programs are notorious vectors for hacker compromises of computers. Distribution sites for the programs themselves and files that are distributed are often "contaminated" by hackers with their own malicious programs, that "ride along" and infect your computer while you are downloading files.
Send email to the Earth Sciences network team with any questions.