Thursday 29 August 2013

For the geeks:Building a secure pc part 1.

First,if you don't really like it,geeky techy stuff...I suggest you move on.Not that you aren't welcome to read it anyways but yeah...

Second,although I am a big security enthusiast,I am still a noob.Sure I know how to find information about the subject and I am well informed about it,but it is incomparable to real security proffesionals.

Third,this is purely theoretical,I am not actually setting this up myself and testing.

And yes,there might be a part 2 some day...maybe.Not promising anything.

Let's start with IT security.What even is that?

Computer security (Also known as cybersecurity or IT Security) is information security as applied to computers and networks.

The field covers all the processes and mechanisms by which computer-based equipment, information and services are protected from unintended or unauthorized access, change or destruction. Computer security also includes protection from unplanned events and natural disasters.

U got that?Great!Because it was copy pasted from Wikipedia!
Also you can split up IT security into physical and software security.Physical security is about securing the pc physically...from unauthorized access,theft etc...And software security is self explanatory.I hope to do a little bit of both.

And this is a sentence you should remember."Security through obscurity!"
This will be a general guideline on our software choices.Basically the more obscure your software is the less known security holes there are.Even better if you can make your own software.

Before we continue you have to know that there are no 100% secure computers.Even if you turned it off and put it inside fort Knox,someone might still launch multiple nukes at fort Knox.

Now,the most important choice.The choice of the operating system.Basically forget about Windows.Windows is just a big security gap.Billions of viruses and malware and exploits everything.And while you are at it,forget about macs too.They are just a little bit more secure than windows.Linux is good.There aren't any critical virus outbreaks for Linux,it has a well defined superuser system,and it is not bloated with potential security holes.

And there is nothing else...or is it?Yes,yes there is.Freebsd and other bsd like systems.Probably even more secure than Linux,built by "security freaks" for "more security freaks".Unfortunately I have never used so I will write this from a Linux perspective.

When choosing your linux distro make sure it has SELinux installed.You might check out the distro called "Kali Linux".Or if you are 1337 enough you might try to make a Linux From Scratch(a.k.a. LFS) distribution.

Anyhow,that is it for part 1.

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