I ran across this article from the CERT Coordination Center which is a very long and thorough ready about securing home networks. Unfortunately, that’s just the problem… Unlike myself, most typical end-users are not going to be interested in reading through a long article like this to learn about network security. Just like someone would not be interested in going to police academy and taking courses in criminal justice and psychology to learn how to protect themselves and their house.

In the same way someone simply pays $99 to a security company for an alarm system, and $20 a month to have it monitored, end-users truely interested in securing their home network would be willing to pay an upfront hardware fee and monitoring fees for a managed firewall service of sorts to give them peace of mind when it comes to the security of their home network.

Now, don’t run out and start a new company based on this idea – I’m not giving anything away. There are already services like this, typically way overpriced for the home user since they are aimed at organizations and corporations who understand the necessity of such a service.

The unfortunate reason why this would not be successful in a home market (at least not yet) is because most home users do not see the need for such measures. Why waste money installing burglar bars and an alarm system on your home? But wait until that person has been robbed, especially if their life is also threatened. They’ll be thinking twice about that alarm system, and $20/month for monitoring won’t be a problem any more.

Even if someone’s home network is compromised (either by a virus, worm, or hacker) the end-users still do not take it seriously. They do not see the real danger, or even the havoc caused by having a worm-infested computer for example. Slowing down their internet connection, unknowingly spamming other internet users, “phoning home” their private data, passwords, even credit card info to some script kiddie on a chat channel somewhere.

“Oh well, my hard drive crashed, I guess that happens… I wonder if it has anything to do with the warnings my antivirus program has been popping up the last 2 months? Time to go get a new computer.”

“I don’t know how my credit card got stolen, but thats ok, my bank is sending me a new one and is refunding the fraudulent charges… I wish it would hurry up and get here, I found a darling new sweater online for half the price it was at the dept. store!”

Maybe someday a) users will realize the importance and take security seriously and b) companies will realize the importance (not just the marketing potential) and offer managed security services for reasonable rates.

Imagine, paying an extra $10 per month to have a managed firewall appliance protecting your home network from outside intruders and emailing you when it detects suspicious traffic from within your network (such as a virus trying to spread) or even having a representative call you when something is detected and offering to walk you through detection and removal right there over the phone.

Microsoft is already getting stronger in their patch delivery methods, making it easier for machines to be kept up to date. Antivirus software does the same thing for the most part. There are free/open source solutions to do most of this (check out the IPCop Firewall) but none of these solutions are idiot-proof, and in the case of ipcop, even confusing to the average home user.

I’ve finally gotten around to updating the Houston Crime Stats page with the latest information available from HPD. I’ve also added an address history option that will show a line chart of past months and the number of incidents each for your search.

And lastly, it’s got a new home…

Go check it out at http://www.HoustonCrimeStats.org