Is Security important for you?

[donald]

@all

Many of my friends do not give a dime for their PC security

They are saying: I don't have anything to hide...and then
they are very astonished that they did not get the job because
the hiring manager has seen their party pictures on Facebook.LOL

Let's talk about computer security
Do you feel safe when you are connected to the Internet?
If NO.....why?
If YES....why?
What have you done to increase the Security Level?...any suggestions?

so long.......donald

[Hamza]

Yes i think the security takes a significative part in a system because we want to make safe our systems on which we're sometimes dependent. People that says that they have nothing to hide are people that wouldn't even notice a phishing website. If they have nothing to hide, they can so post their bank details on Internet and let everyone see what they have in their bank account and perhaps take all the money they have in. Anyway they have nothing to hide

[wread]

Hi all!
A civil engineering student from my class works as security man in a local bank. The intrusions per day are very high, and some hackers occasionally get through; yes they do.

When this happens, they switch all traffic to "manual" mode (=phone + ID) until the security hole is shut off. Banks take enhanced security measures and hire security experts to watch their operations. They are dealing with money!

Any computer can be penetrated; easily if it is not secured properly, more difficult the more security measures you take.

I am an old man, presumably the oldest in the community, and for sure they have been spying my computers. If it weren't so, how comes they send me spam mail offering viagra and cyalis regularly?? No joke!

Regards!

[donald]

@wread

Could it be that the advertising has tracked you
because you allow too much cookies?

If you (I mean anyone) follow the basic rules of computer security,
nobody will be able to easily look at your hard drive.
especially not if you are behind a well-configured router.

[donald]

@all
I always wonder what's going on behind the scene.

My I-net connection is an usb-wifi, with a LED, which is flashing
if data goes out or come in.
Because I don't want Phone-home/autoupdate and similar transmissions,
I took me some Time and disabled every such Options which I have found.
( and belive me, I've searched everywhere such Options to disable them.)

But when I'm connected and I really do nothing,
the LED is flashing rapidly from Time to Time.(some more if FF is open)

I'm wondering about that because I also use Slitaz with Midori,
and belive me or not, there is no flashing of the LED if I do nothing.

So what's going on here?

[wread]

@donald
check out if you have an application named pns-tool; someone, months ago, found a security hole in that application. It does check if you can ping googles name server other so -8.8.8.8-. But somehow it leaves a way open, I read....

Nicht zu glauben!

Regards!

[fanthom]

ping used as a backdoor - interesting

[wread]

Nicht zu glauben (= unbeliveable)

[francois]

Can someone give some basic security measures for laymen or newbies coming at this porteus forum?

What has changed in terms of security in the last four years since the following thread was written on the topic?
http://old.slax.org/forum.php?action=vi ... ntID=36246

[donald]

Basic Security-rules or how to make your Life easier.

An IT-Prof. would probably say: Disable any running service which you do not need,
close ports as much as possible, check your Router/Firewall configuration,
avoid online banking and sending credit-card data, and..and..and...
Going into detail, would fill a book.

Accept that someone could hack,even though it will probably never happen.

So what can you do?
blank your Hd, install and configure everything new, use only trustworthy Software,
(what may not be easy to decide if or if not).
If everything is fine, use e.g. Clonezilla and make Images of your Partitions or
HDD's. (copied to an external Drive).Now you are prepared..

What is the worst case that could happen to you?
all your data get lost?? I hope you make Backups...what else?...
Are you planning the third world war?...encrypt your plans..

Use the Internet without fear,have Fun,...when something suspicious occurs,
blank the Partition and restore your Image...and all is fine again..

Consider this:
If anything goes wrong, it will only harm your PC, not you.

[Hamza]

Even if you are safe on client-side, you can't control the server-side. If the website where you bought stuffs got breached, you are dead. Simple.

[francois]

@donald:

An IT-Prof. would probably say: Disable any running service which you do not need,
close ports as much as possible, check your Router/Firewall configuration,
avoid online banking and sending credit-card data, and..and..and...
Going into detail, would fill a book.

Thus wired internet better than wifi. And I imagine that closing the browser, when not using it is better. How does the neophyte can close the ports?

My bank and my credit card company say its safe. Shouldn't I trust them?

Backing up of data is accessible to almost anybody. We will be fine on this side.

What simple linux tools or packages do you propose to have a moderate to very secure environment?


@hamza:

[donald]

@francois

A port is closed if no Service/Programm is using that port.
with the netstat command you can see which ports are listening
or have an established connection.

My bank and my credit card company say its safe.

What did you think what they will say?

Shouldn't I trust them?

you decide.....More comfort = more risk

What simple linux tools or packages do you propose to have a moderate to very secure environment?

There is no general answer.It depends on what an Individual wants
to do/needs/must have, to be satisfied.
Personally I use a Live-CD for web-browsing (no flash.and javascript mostly off).
While web-browsing my internal HD is switched off...

[francois]

TOR;
Tor seems an interesting security solution at first glance:
https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en
https://www.torproject.org/

RSA2048, an encrytion method and OpenSSH:
RSA (algorithm
http://docs.slackware.com/howtos:security:sshkeys
OpenSSH slackware from pkgs.org:
http://pkgs.org/slackware-14.0/slackwar ... 1.txz.html

JONDO:
https://anonymous-proxy-servers.net/en/

Download jondo browser beta:
https://anonymous-proxy-servers.net/en/ ... owser.html
Java Anon Proxy
And citation from the latter hyperlink:

Tor and the alternative network system JonDonym (Java Anon Proxy, JAP) are considered more resilient than alternatives such as VPNs. Were a local observer on an ISP or WLAN to attempt to analyze the size and timing of the encrypted data stream going through the VPN, Tor or JonDo system, the latter two would be harder to analyze, as demonstrated by a 2009 study

Telecomix (here I do not understand how I get to do something within this site):
http://telecomix.org/#home

Piratebox? It seems to be only a shared network device but outside the internet space:
http://daviddarts.com/piratebox/?title=PirateBox
Video:
http://vimeo.com/38210825

There is also VPN.

[jmurrinux]

Hello forum, this is a good question to start up conversations: How important is Security for you?

Disclaimer: Statements are personal opinions and don't necessarily mean that I'm experienced, or an IT professional. Just a kind and unbiased release of ideas, comments, questions, etc.

One of the things that made me sick of MSWin was the Anti virus and Firewall, They truly slowed down the system performance.

Then, I turned to Linux, starting with Ubuntu and Puppy. What I like is that you really don't need an antivirus for them and the firewall is simple enough like to slow down the system performance. Although, another reason was that Linux help you to use the most of a PC and its resources without all those hungry programs running or dragster updates that will force an individual towards the purchase of a new system.

I know, that if you really want a fort, then you hire a vpn for top notch security. If you know about a "free" VPN client, please let me know.

What are the basic recommendations or cautions that a new Porteus distro user should take about security?

1- The first step I took was to enable the Firewall
2- I've been thinking to change the guest and root passwords as another security measure
3- Anti virus: Do I need one?
4- How paranoid should I be about security?

Let's chat on IRC Freenode #porteus, or continue the replies thread 8)