Internet: Make the web a safer place and provide firewall data

With more and more people using ADSL broadband and always on Internet connections, we believe it might be time for a little reminder. Support the SANS Internet Storm Center and provide firewall logs to the DShield database.

The Internet Storm Center (ISC) is an initiative of the SANS Institute, one of the most reputable computer security institutions. The data collection engine behind the ISC is provided by the associated non profit organization DShield a distributed Intrusion Detection System. The database currently collects more then 500 million incidents per month about cracker activity from all over the world though simple packet filter logs that can be created by any firewall. More complex patterns as used by application level firewalls are unfortunately still not supported.

You can help this initiative by submitting logs from your firewall to the DShield database. A whole set of ready to go client applications for many firewalls can be downloaded from their site.

The image below shows the Flash application from the ISC web site that displays movies of traffic submitted within the last 5 minutes to DShield. The colors indicate the packet type.

You’re not using a firewall. Well good luck then…