Re: Is Linux safe for cable internet ?

From: Floyd Davidson (floyd_at_barrow.com)
Date: 08/21/03 

Date: 20 Aug 2003 18:22:01 -0800

Arctic Wolf <SpamShield-ArcticWolf@mail.com> wrote:
>I have Red Hat 9, and I'm continuously connected to EarthLink cable
>internet. The setup was easy; I simply set eth0 to dhcp, and everything
>worked. I set the security level to medium. Am I safe, or do I need to
>do more stuff for security?

No you are not safe. What you have is a sieve for security, and
it would take more diligence than I can imagine to maintain it if
you tried.

A *separate* firewall is highly recommended. It can be just any
old box you can find. Somebody's old pentium or even a 486
would do just fine. Today you can find old P2's for practically
nothing too.

Get one. All it needs is two NICs and one serial port. You
don't even really have to have a keyboard or a monitor once it
is setup right, though neither are expensive and both are danged
handy to have. Any old hard disk with at least a several
hundred Mb will be enough.

Then install a *barebones* Linux on it. Remove *everything*
that is unneeded. Set this system up as your firewall.

That way you have a firewall which does nothing but work as a
firewall, and you have some hope of keeping it secure.

Your regular workstation is no longer required to be secure, and
you can run whatever you like on it without worrying about
whether you are harming the security of your system. 

-- 
Floyd L. Davidson           <http://web.newsguy.com/floyd_davidson>
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)                         floyd@barrow.com

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