Penguin
Note: You are viewing an old revision of this page. View the current version.

Passwords

Passwords are like girlfriends (or boyfriends!) - you shouldn't share them with other people, and you should get a new one every now and again.

See ChoosingPasswords for information on creating safe, random passwords.

Basic Machine Security:

  • Don't use protocols such as telnet or ftp between machines on an untrusted network such as the internet - these send usernames and passwords around in clear text. Anonymous ftp is OK - you don't give away your details. Instead look into ssh (Secure Shell). This encrypts all data between the machines.
  • Don't run unnecessary services (called "daemons" in UNIX) that allow internet connections - some distributions turn these on by default. Examples are mail or news servers and printer daemon (lpd). If you want to see a list of the daemons running on your machine, at a command prompt type:
    netstat -aAinet
    The lines that say "LISTEN" means a daemon is waiting for connections on the specified port.

Wireless Network Security:

See WirelessNetworkSecurityNotes