What is your weakest link and what is your most prized asset?
“The file server is behind the firewall, but I have rules set up to allow access to it from the other house PC’s.”

The other house PC’s would be the weakest link and I would assume the file server to be the prized asset. The house PCs aren’t necessarily THAT weak though as they can only be accessable physically for the most part. The only way they can be accessed over the network is through the router/switch on only those ports that were opened. Depending on the services, they can be compromised with the game usually being the hardest hit.

If I were a hacker and I wanted in, the easiest way I could do that is to get you to run spyware or some kind of software that could bind to a port. It would have to then know which services you opened and create an outbound channel that I could then tunnel through to get into your network. Since that is almost impossible, your network is pretty secure.

Hell, my network is less secure and I’m not the least bit paranoid. I have a DSL modem running straight to my Linux firewall. From there it runs to the switch which feeds all of the other computers. I rely on VPN between my office and home to make complete connections as I need them. The rest is taken care of by NAT on the firewall side, so I don’t really have to poke holes or anything special (nor would I, things like WinMX, and eMule which “say” they need an open port can kiss my bright red ass). The easiest way to exploit my setup is to somehow trick the VPN to think that you are one of the computers at work, which has complete access on both sides of the VPN tunnel. The easier attack vector would be exploiting those few services I expose on the firewall.

My weakest link is also the only equipment the internet sees. If they gained access to my firewall, everything is pretty much lost but I really don’t care too much for some reason. I do store my Money file on my laptop and a few crucial things but if someone really wanted in, I’m sure they could find a way.

I do sacrifice a little security for convenience but it sure beats having to go into work for every little thing. The only times I truly need to go in are when either network is down. I go in anyway so that people can walk by my office and interrupt whatever it is I’m working on, since it seems to make them feel better than email.

If we went wireless I’d be a lot more paranoid, that’s for sure. I don’t particularly trust it right now as it seems like a rushed technology that wasn’t quite thought through correctly. I’ll give it a couple of more years to mature and a couple of more encryption layers before I begin to think about it.