Security and VPN's

Dalton McCorkle

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I'm a new convert to Linux and very much like the usability. My main concern when switching over was security as I handle some sensitive information on my computer, and maybe have an all to healthy sense of paranoia. This is partly my reason for switching over. I have an account with CactusVPN and got that set up as PPTP. As I've done some reading however I found this to not be the most secure. However after trying to get OpenVPN up and ruunning as per CactusVPN's suggestion, and following many tutorial sources, that failed miserably for me. I also could not get the wireguard VPN to work and in fact could not even get past the first few commands in the installation process before being halted by not being able to find many needed files. I'd really appreciate some advice as far as choice of VPN and setup help.
Also any suggestions on furthering the security (e.g. firewalls) would be much appreciated. Thank you.
 


G'day Dalton, and Welcome to Linux.org

My apologies, we appear to have overlooked your post. That is NOT out usual approach !!



Have you enabled the firewall on Linux Mint 18.3 ?

if not....

Open Terminal (ctrl alt T) will open it......the copy and paste what i have typed in below in red.......

sudo ufw enable


....then hit enter.
you will be prompted for your password....type it in (you will not see ANY response when you type......just put the password in, this is normal)....and hit enter again

That's it. Nothing else is necessary.
The firewall will now be turned ON each and every time you startup or reboot

If you feel the need to check if it is on.....
sudo ufw status will let you know that it is active. (in terminal)

Linux is inherently secure. provided you dont do weird and wonderful stuff like visiting crack sites, porn sites etc etc....and also SECURE YOUR BROWSER....then you should have no problems at all.

The main insecurity is sitting in the chair in front of the PC

If you are using Firefox browser, I would recommend installing these extensions ::

cfBjLQK.png

Whether you install and use LastPass is entirely your choice. I have found it be quite secure, and it will use some very secure passwords and remember them for you. It does not forget.
 
G'day Dalton, and Welcome to Linux.org

My apologies, we appear to have overlooked your post. That is NOT out usual approach !!



Have you enabled the firewall on Linux Mint 18.3 ?

if not....

Open Terminal (ctrl alt T) will open it......the copy and paste what i have typed in below in red.......

sudo ufw enable


....then hit enter.
you will be prompted for your password....type it in (you will not see ANY response when you type......just put the password in, this is normal)....and hit enter again

That's it. Nothing else is necessary.
The firewall will now be turned ON each and every time you startup or reboot

If you feel the need to check if it is on.....
sudo ufw status will let you know that it is active. (in terminal)

Linux is inherently secure. provided you dont do weird and wonderful stuff like visiting crack sites, porn sites etc etc....and also SECURE YOUR BROWSER....then you should have no problems at all.

The main insecurity is sitting in the chair in front of the PC

If you are using Firefox browser, I would recommend installing these extensions ::

cfBjLQK.png

Whether you install and use LastPass is entirely your choice. I have found it be quite secure, and it will use some very secure passwords and remember them for you. It does not forget.
I agree with this. Linux is pretty good security-wise when used properly. If you're just going to be using it as a general use computer then your main concern is going to be client side attacks. Malware and phishing, that kind of thing. There's some basic things you should do in addition to what Condobloke said above.
1) Keep your box and software updated.
2) Disable any unnecessary services on the network side (an SSH server running for instance).
3) Don't do everyday tasks as root. Make another account for everyday use and add it to the sudoers group.
4) Keep strong passwords. Avoid dictionary words and increase entropy as much as possible.
 
Have you enabled the firewall on Linux Mint 18.3 ?

Just a correction here, to maintain the integrity of the thread.

I should have specified I'm using Ubuntu 18.04 on a Lenovo Ideapad 320-15abr

... So Ubuntu 18.04. I'd bet GNOME, but if MATE that's cool.

Brian you've been letting Belle type on the computer again, haven't you (Brian's dog is pictured, she's prettier than Brian)

@9daemon you might just want to explain "entropy" a little ... in terms of how it hampers the Black Hats - I know what it means, but others may not. :)

Cheers all

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
Now Belle is miffed.....I had her nails cut the other day so her typos would be reduced to a minimum....so instead she misread the post !
 
@wizardfromoz mentioned it might be good to explain entropy and how it effects passwords. entropy is the randomness, chaos, and disorder in something. for example password1234 has very low entropy. whereas aapg.*g27))/g27mdg3bb3 has a much higher entropy. the reason this is important is because of the way black hats go about cracking passwords. they get a password list of common or likely passwords and use a password cracking program to guess thousands per second. the password lists often have dictionary words and sometimes numbers. and 1337 speak words are usually in them too.
 

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