“So you’ve bought that new G4 you’ve been eyeing for lo these
many months. Or perhaps you’ve blown the dust off of some aging
Performa you’ve kept in your basement. Either way, you’ve decided
to install Linux on your PowerPC box, but you’re worried about some
‘31337 haxOr d00dz’ gaining control of your machine through some
security hole. It turns out there’s both good news and bad news for
you.”
“First the bad news: there is no such thing as absolute
security. Unless, as Bruce Schneier puts it, your computer “is
powered off, melted into slag, encased in concrete, and buried at
the bottom of the ocean.” And then maybe. Of course, most rational
people would view this as a less-than-useful state for a computer.
You wish to use your computer to send and read email, use a web
browser, perhaps set up a web server of your own — you know,
actually use the thing!”
“This brings us to the good news: most of your basic security
vulnerabilities can be dealt with through a few simple (but
ongoing) tasks. To quote Scheier again, ” security is a process,
not a product.” There’s no silver bullet that will magically take
care of all your security needs from now until the End-time.
However, that is not to say there aren’t tools out there to help
you in the security process. Our goal here is to start to get you
familiarized with these tools and help educate you in their
use.”
“So the key word to remember is ‘vigilance.’ By this we don’t
mean the ‘Fort Knox — Electric Fence — Round-the-Clock’ sort of
vigilance. What we mean by vigilance is a simple awareness about
your computer: things like its network connectivity, the software
packages you run, and the like. Being aware of your computer’s
environment and taking appropriate steps toward its care and
feeding from time to time will go a long way toward securing your
LinuxPPC box.”