Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie

NAS security

Options
  • 23-07-2011 6:14am
    #1
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 81,901 ✭✭✭✭


    I have a Seagate Goflex home. Tonight I was having intermittent connection issues, and I noticed my networked drive was going full tilt when I went to check the router. No backup was in progress. I figure it may be remotely possible someone got into my network, and found the drive. Perhaps looking up files and whatever else. Not an idea I am comfortable with of course.

    Basically I'm just curious to what I would need to do in order to be ensured that something like that can't possibly happen. I've already reset everything on the power strip, so I've obtained a new IP regardless for the moment. But I feel like I've only just jumped away, and the cylons will still track me down :eek:

    I poked through the router, it's a Netgear WNR2000. A cheap sonnofabitch. I don't see much in the way of what I would consider adequate security. Is there a way to get my modem to automatically renew the IP address regularly?


Comments

  • Options
    #2
    ethernet
    Registered Users Posts: 3,568 ✭✭✭ethernet


    As long as your NAS device is behind a firewall of some sort, you're safe.

    Is your NAS device meant to spin down your drive(s) after a certain period of inactivity?

    Most home users will be using NAT and so all devices will have private, non-routable IP addresses, such as 192.168.x.y, among others.

    To make your NAS device publically accessible on the Internet on this case, you'd need to do port forwarding or put the device in a DMZ. Now neither of these things will have been done unless you've already done so!

    There's usually an option on consumer routers and NAS devices to enable remote administration. You can disable this just to be sure (even though it won't work unless the NAS device has a public IP address, or is in a DMZ or is reachable through port forwarding, as outlined above).

    If you're using Wi-Fi, be sure to put a strong password on it and use WPA/WPA2 encryption only.

    In a nutshell: I think you're safe, although you're right to be paranoid :)

    Be sure to lock down access to the NAS shares locally - e.g. only allow access from certain IP addresses, require a username and password for shares with sensitive data and so on.

    It's normal to see blinkenlichten on a router even if you don't suspect anyone using your network at the time - ARP requests, DHCP renewals and load of other things will cause some network activity.


Advertisement