A Free Educational Resource Created by Carnegie Mellon University to Empower You to Secure Your Part of Cyberspace

Port

An interface on a computer used to connect it to another device

A computer port is an interface on a computer used to connect it to another device. Ports can be internal, such as to make a connection to a disk drive or a network, or external to connect to a peripheral device like a printer or a keyboard.

A security concern of computer ports is that they are a gateway into a computer. Although this gateway is necessary for accessing tools such as the Internet, a computer port can be exploited by criminals to access a computer for illegal purposes.

Computer ports are of two kinds, hardware and software. Within these categories, many different types of ports exist.

Protective Measures

Tools

  • Software is available to protect a computer from port scans, which someone may perform to find access points into a computer.

References

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