Canada Computes: Secure and protect your Linux desktop | Linux Today

Canada Computes: Secure and protect your Linux desktop

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Aug 16, 2000

“…There are two types of people who may wish to enter your
machine. There are the ones who just want to explore and see what
is out there. Despite what some people think, not all people who
break into machines have malevolent intentions. Of course, there
are those who do.”

“In the recent Denial of Service attacks against websites such
as Yahoo! it is believed that some of the attacks were made
possible by the weak security on other sites.”

“Linux can be very vulnerable to attack in some default
configurations. For example, after installing Linux and having
been using the Internet for two months from it, I discovered that
Telnet was open. Since I had a test account with the password
“test”, my system had, not just a welcome mat, but a mat with the
key under it.
Needless to say, I shut this security hole down
as soon as I realised its existence. I then proceeded to try and
lock down my system. Since I don’t run an FTP or web server, nobody
has any reason for remote access into my system, so I shut down
practically everything.”

Complete
Story

Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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