Looking for security advice

[sickofwindows]

Hi ppl, Im new to Linux and I just finished setting up MDK 10.0 (dual boot w/ winxp) and I'm wondering whats the best security set up to go with. Nothing fancy, I'm not networked or anything, basically a good firewall and anti-virus and spyware killer??? Any advice will be appreciated.

Tim

[XavierP]

Antivirus - ClamAV or F-Prot (F-Prot also has a gui add on) currently, there are very few viruses for Linux and most of those are proof of concept only. But you should have one if you are running a file server or mailserver of any description

Firewall - linux has IPTables built in. If you feel you need a gui to configure your rules - FWBuilder or Firestarter or Guarddog are good and straightforward to use

Spyware - there is no spyware for Linux and so there is no spyware stopper. You could configure your browser to prevent pop up windows - but otherwise there are no dialers or other spyware

[sickofwindows]

Thanks for the reply Xavier! Thats the info I was looking for, going to check it out now. Sounds like Linux is more secure without any special precautions than windows is with wall to wall scanners and crap. Im liking this better every minute I use it, and before long, my XP partition is going to get evicted and the disk is going to be a really expensive coaster. Thanks again.

[XavierP]

Make sure that your software is up to date and patched - security bulletins are regularly issued - and you should be ok.

[rocketpcguy]

i don't understand why you like mandrake, it's dead slow compared to slackware. i suggest do some speed tweaks by searching this forum.

[merclude]

He's fresh off the windows man, I've never used mandrake, but it seems like a good distro to start with to me!

slackware would almost definately scare him away.

might as well do LFS ;P

[sickofwindows]

Actually Slackware is on my shopping list, but I figured I'd get my feet wet with MDK first. The $6 dollar price tag had a lot to do with my decison too, since most of my pc budget went for the modem.

I'm not having any speed problems to speak of, except for Open office, it takes its sweet old time loading. But speed tweaks always sound like a good idea. Going to check on the updates and patches too, thanks again for the info.

[chrism01]

You may also find the following helpful:

www.chkrootkit.org
Software to run to check for Linux rootkits (ie hackers trying to get/run as root)

www.tripwire.org
Software that checks whether the signatures of various program executables have been altered.
Should be in your distro already.

www.bastille-linux.org
The Bastille Hardening System attempts to "harden" or "tighten" Unix operating systems. See website for details.

Try not to ever use Telnet or FTP, as these protocols send username and password and data as plain text.
Use SSH/SCP/SFTP, which send username/password/data all as encrypted streams.

HTH

Chris

[sickofwindows]

Thanks Chris, Ive heard not so good things about Telnet in the past so I never even intalled it, and Ill be sure and avoid FTP. I appreciate the links. Checking them out now.

Tim