Why advocating Linux can be an up hill battle...

Mark Komarinski mkomarinski at wayga.org
Thu Apr 24 15:35:10 EDT 2003


On Thu, Apr 24, 2003 at 03:26:38PM -0400, Travis Roy wrote:
> > The Linux router was pulled and these
> > "professionals" decided that they should just plug the DSL modem directly
> > into a 16 port hub!
> 
> Just wondering.. Why is this so bad? If a person is up on their patches they
> should be mostly fine. Before all this broadband most people were dirrectly
> connected to their internet. Sure it was on a dialup but they had an IP and
> it's not like an exploit is bandwidth intensive. Now everybody seems to
> totally freak out when they're not behind some kind of "broadband router" or
> "personal firewall". Even now, most people with DSL or cable modems, unless
> they have more then one computer, are connected right to the device.
 
A few reasons why machines should be behind a firewall of some sort:

1) The provider doesn't know/care how many machines you have, and
thus can't charge you extra (cable companies do charge extra).
2) Traffic between machines is local, never going to the DSL
router.
3) The firewall provides one in a number of steps to improve security.
If a h4x0r cannot hit your box directly, there is less chance of
security threats becoming security problems.

As Ben would say (and probably is saying) "Security is a process".
Part of that process is the traditional keep patches up to date, etc.
But it's also not making yourself an easy target.

-Mark
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