Security?

manic111

manic111

manic111

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Now that I'm using my Mint install as my everyday OS, and Vista only for games, I was wondering about the security of it. I always hear that Linux is more secure than Windows, and generally believe it-Linux does, after all, have a considerably smaller user base.

However, I know what I am doing when it comes to security in Windows, whereas I have no idea in Linux. Should I just accept that my Mint install is secure, or are there antivirus/spyware programs that I ought to be using for it? Is it secure enough for me to safely use my online banking, buy things online etc?
 
IMO Windows & Linux are both pretty insecure out of the box, however Linux is a hell of a lot easier to secure and much more configurable in that sense.

You dont need to worry with anti virus or spyware protection for linux, there are something like 20 viruses for Linux comapred to the millions on Windows. If your gonna be sharing files with windows boxes you could look at ClamAV for added protection.

Something you could spend time worrying about is root kits, familiarize yourself with protection software like rootkit hunter and chkrootkit.

In terms of online banking safety, you obviously need to be aware of phishing attacks but your ultimately as secure as your browser's security inplementation, so yes, you are as safe if not safer than on windows with a modern browser like Firefox. If your very concered you can spend time verifying SSL certificates and such...

IMO your better off learning why linux is more secure than windows rather than just 'accepting it' as you put. There are many reasons for this, and you cant really explain them in one post i dont think, but Linux was designed from the ground up as a multi-user OS, and it has a very sensible security model and access controls. Open source helps as well, plus theres added security stuff like grsecurity & selinux which can be provide a hell of a lot of security if your clever enough to work out how to configure them :p

Use common sense, keep well patched and dont have server software running that you arnt using, check what ports your routers forwarding to the box etc and your will be fine :)

You could also spend some time learning how to configure IPTables to give yourself a firewall, but if your behind a NAT router there isnt a whole lot of point.

Hope thats some help.
 
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OK that's cool, we are behind a decent router and our ISP provides us with antispyware somewhere along the line as well, so to be honest I'm pretty safe as it is.

So the main thing to worry about is rootkits over viruses then?
 
manic111 said:
So the main thing to worry about is rootkits over viruses then?
Click to expand...

Yes, but saying that the chances of you getting a rootkit are also very small, but i would say higher than that of getting a virus. Rootkits are 'generally-speaking' something that a hacker might install on your computer after he has hacked you, maybe with the aim of providing a backdoor for later access or to hide something else hes done... so as you can imagine, as long as you secure your network and the rest of your PC it wont be a huge issue for a home PC, maybe run a scan once a month or so, but i wouldnt worry about it too much unless you actually suspect your pc has been hacked.
 
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