What Do I Do Then?

First assess your own security as much as you can. Hire a professional to check your security after you're through. If you want to use the tools we discussed earlier in this chapter to protect and monitor yourself, a good place to start is your local library or book store, and the Internet.

Educate yourself in these key areas:

• Networking

• DNS

• Very rudimentary TCP or IP

• Apache common log file format

• Basic PHP commands

• .htaccess includes

• php.ini includes

• The tools listed:

  • NMAP

  • Wireshark

• Basic Linux commands

• Hacker (read: the bad guys) sites

• Sites such as CERT.ORG

You will need to learn to have patience because as you start finding issues, you will want your host to fix them. They typically do not like interference and may get upset. Again, do not try anything in this chapter without the express permission of the owner of the computer, host, network, or website.

In my opinion, NMAP should be one of the first tools you learn about. It provides you the highest degree of information about...