Best Privacy and Security Tools for Linux – Latest Hacking News

There are many benefits of the internet, but it also introduced new risks and challenges. The threat to our privacy is one of the most common and notable risks users face online. Many users believe that their browser, search engine and anti-virus programs are protected, but rarely enough is done. This article will discuss some great security tools that can help protect your online privacy.

This is how you prevent your IP from being tracked

There are a few different ways websites and apps can track users. Four frequently used methods that websites use to track visitors include IP addresses, permissions, emails and search history. Despite data breaches and website tracking making it impossible to surf the internet safely, you are in control of your information and there are ways to protect yourself, including:

• Use browser extensions to identify trackers: consider browser add-ons and extensions that you can use to avoid being tracked. If you switch browsers, make sure you get extra security and privacy measures for all the browsers you use.
• Use different passwords and update them: passwords can be hacked and bypassed, so it’s important to change your passwords often. Be sure to choose a complex password and never use the same password across multiple accounts.
• Use services that remove data from brokers: use services to remove your data from any broker or listing. If you keep getting spam calls, obnoxious ads, or even spam emails, chances are your name is on a list somewhere accessible to these companies or individuals.

How to avoid being tracked online

Generally, websites, apps or browsers collect data to improve the user experience. In certain cases where your data is shared with other third parties, your information may be sold, and there are also malicious actors who track your online behavior with the intention of creating attacks such as phishing or ransomware. Below is precautions you can take to maintain online anonymity.

Use a private browser, incognito mode and do not allow tracking

Consider private browsers or browsers that specify that they do not track users in addition to using all selected browsers in incognito mode. Although incognito mode alone cannot guarantee that you will not be tracked, combined with other methods, it can make it more difficult to be tracked.

Use privacy settings and permissions carefully

It is critical that you review your privacy settings and permissions and ensure that your social media accounts are set to private as public data can be collected and tracked. In addition, you must ensure that you activate the “Do not track” option in the settings of the browsers you use.

Disable social media tracking

By clicking the share buttons on other websites, social media can collect information about you. To ensure that you are not tracked, you must disable social media tracking. You can start this process by disabling all permissions from your social media account settings.

Use an encrypted and anonymous operating system

Consider a secure, encrypted operating system (OS) like Tails, a Linux Live Image, which can ensure complete privacy and anonymity online. Tails is an encrypted, private OS that includes other privacy tools on a small device. When this device is connected to your PC, the operating system will change to Tails.

Onion Routing and Tor

In 2004, the theory of “onion routing” as a way to anonymize Internet traffic was integrated into a publicly available open source web browser known as Tor. Tor allows users to browse the internet privately with onion routing, a process where a user’s internet traffic is routed through several layers of a network relay, similar to an onion. By encrypting traffic and sending it through multiple servers, only the user and the destination can read the data.

Securing the Linux system

When you look to improve the security of your system, the first step is to ensure that it is properly configured and updated. Then implement the following necessary tools to stay safe.

SELinux

Implementing Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is a very fine-grained and quite technical mandatory access control (MAC) system that restricts access beyond what traditional discretionary access control (DAC) methods such as file permissions or access control lists (ACL) can achieve. Strict access controls are essential to prevent malicious actors from gaining administrative access to your system and installing various types of malware. Because of this, SELinux has been adopted by several popular Linux distros including Fedora, Ubuntu, and Debian, and is usually enabled by default.

Linux Kernel Runtime Guard

Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG) is a kernel module that performs runtime integrity checking of the Linux kernel to detect security vulnerability exploits against the kernel. LKRG attempts to detect and quickly respond to unauthorized kernel modifications or changes in the credentials of running system processes. This protects against exploits that gain unauthorized root access through kernel vulnerabilities and other threats to the security of a Linux system.

Privacy Badger extension

Privacy Badger is a free, open-source browser extension that prevents advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking the websites you visit and your online actions. Privacy Badger blocks ads and tracking cookies that violate the Do Not Track header on outgoing requests. The add-on automatically prevents an advertiser from loading additional content into your browser.

Security audits

Regular testing and verification of security is the only way to be sure that your system is as well protected as it should be. Conduct regular security audits to identify any gaps in your security defenses to better protect your server from vulnerabilities and attacks.

The bottom line

While threats to the security and privacy of Linux systems are at an all-time high, Linux users have a number of tools at their disposal to keep them safe. Security is of utmost importance in any computer system. By following best practices and implementing the best tools, you can easily keep your systems secure.