ubuntu post installation hardening

[Kent Borg]

Brian McKee wrote:
> And wandering laptops on public wi-fi connections...

If you haven't set up any server software on your laptop, if you are
only running standard applications, you still don't need any firewall.

However, you will want to worry about whether your e-mail server uses an
encrypted connection (IMAPS, not IMAP).  You will want to directly enter
"https:// www...." (note the "s") into important web addresses (or use a
bookmark that has the "s" in it).  Encrypted network data is your
roaming laptop's friend.

And encrypting your home directory (or entire hard disk) is also a
friend of laptops that might be lost or easily stolen.  Ubuntu can do
this for you, but it starts to get more complicated.  And a firewall
won't help with this. 

There are lots of security issues, but firewalls are a mostly a stopgap,
and even at that, firewalls address only a few of these issues.

Again, a firewall can't hurt:

 a) if it is configured correctly, and
 b) if it doesn't make you think is has solved more problems than it has.


-kb