[PLUG] Got hacked last night - HELP!

Steve Bonds 1s7k8uhcd001 at sneakemail.com
Tue Oct 5 10:45:03 UTC 2004


On Tue, 5 Oct 2004 08:10:46 -0600 (MDT), Bill Thoen wrote:

> Or I can switch horses altogether and install Slackware (for example) and
> have an altogether new learning curve.

A middle ground between FC2, which will still give you end-of-life
problems next year and a whole new learning curve for Debian/Slackware
might be one of the Red Hat Enterprise Clones.  I grew weary of the
constant Red Hat version changes and finally installed White Box Linux
3.0 on my home system.  Aside from some mediocre USB support I've been
very happy with it.

http://whiteboxlinux.org/

It's pretty much the same thing as Red Hat 9.0, with updates.  Red Hat
9.0 was pretty much the same thing as Red Hat 8.0.
 
> All the while I'll be under constant attack by destructives more
> knowledgeable than I using automated hacking tools who will bring it all
> crashing down again if I miss even the smallest security patch or make the
> tiniest mistake in security configuration.

Alas, this is the state of the modern Internet.  I would suggest
investing in a hardware NAT firewall.  This simple step has allowed me
to be a bit more lax on some of my security updates than I would
otherwise need to be.  I've had good luck with Netgear firewalls, and
poor luck with Linksys.  Others' experiences on this list will, I'm
sure, vary.

Be sure to enable the local firewall during the White Box Linux
install.  This serves as an excellent second layer of defense to your
hardware firewall.  Finally, periodically run "yum update" and reboot
to fix any bugs that are discovered in things that you allow through
the second layer of defense.  These patches will likely be available
for four more years, subject to the time the White Box volunteers can
spend on it.  (If you want guaranteed availability, buy Red Hat
Enterprise and update contracts.  $180+ $96/year)

The combination of White Box Linux and a hardware firewall has been a
very low-effort way to keep the bad guys at bay.

  -- Steve




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