Five tips for improving Linux security | ZDNet

Five tips for improving Linux security

By Larry Dignan | June 15, 2010, 2:30am PDT

Summary

Protecting a networked computer is a never-ending challenge even in Linux. These simple measures from TechRepublic’s Five Tips blog will help protect your Linux box.

Topics

Password, Linux Server, Linux, UNIX, Open Source, Operating Systems, Security, Software, Larry Dignan

What’s that you say? You don’t need to do anything about security on your Linux box because it’s Linux? Think again. Linux is an operating system that begs to be online, so it wants to be secure. Sure it’s fairly secure out of the box, but NO operating system is 100% secure if it’s, well, turned on. Here are five crucial Linux security tips.

1: Take advantage of the keyring

To many, this is an annoyance. You log in to your machine, your machine requests a connection to a network (or LDAP server, etc.), and you have to enter your keyring password. The temptation is to disable this feature by giving it an empty password and dismissing the warning that you’ll be transmitting unencrypted information (including passwords). This is not a good idea. Although you might think it a hassle, this feature/functionality is there for a reason — to encrypt sensitive passwords when they are sent over the wire.

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