Securing Linux for Web Use

[richard-af]

I have RH 4.4

I have a Virgin Media ISP account.

I have a wireless router, and I do know how to do Admin. stuff on it. Currently, the wireless aspect is disabled.

What sort of security horrors should I be aware of, and how do I lock 'em down?

It's a home system, so no SSH, FTP, etc. is enabled. It's just stopping hacker-type gits getting in, spyware, and all that I'm bothered about.

All heplp gratefully received.

[Ardesco]

Generally speaking Linux is pretty safe to use for browsing. you need root access to actually do anything worthwhile on the box (I'm assuming you do not use the root user unless you are doing some admin work) so using your normal user will invalidate most things that people try to do. Secondly most virus' and malware are aimed at windows boxes because more people use windows, and generally speaking Linux users are usually a bit more clued up and notice if something is wrong.

To be 100% safe set up a virtual machine using Xen and do all your browsing through that. This way it doesn't matter what is done to it because you just restart the virtual machine and have a clean slate again.

There are some quite good tutorials available here:

http://www.howtoforge.com/

I would suggest using Debian though as it is one of the more secure releases. If getting Debian up and running is a bit too techy for you go with Ubuntu, nice GUI installer that does everything for you and is pretty secure as well (not to mention you still get to use apt-get).

[richard-af]

Generally speaking Linux is pretty safe

Many thanks!