The ubuntu is 100% safe promise

[Soul-Sing]

Hi, could we, as a loCo, come with this promise for an out-of-the-box desktop system? Because of:
- Ubuntu has SUDO
- Ubuntu has TRUSTED SOFTWARE SOURCES
- Ubuntu has no significant listening services: NO OPEN PORTS
- Malware is written for Windows
- There are no Linux viruses active in "the wild"

I am aware of this excellent guide: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BasicSecurity with his myth and reality way of explaining security. But for an average beginner, it is technical, and deterrent.(imho)
How can we best inform en educate beginners in security related matters?
Is it just a "relax and enjoy", or is there more to say?

regards
S.

[ibjsb4]

If ubuntu is 100% safe why do we have security updates?

Edit: Nevermind, I just found out why.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/

[Soul-Sing]

If ubuntu is 100% safe why do we have security updates?

Edit: Nevermind, I just found out why.

http://www.linuxsecurity.com/

Thank you I wasn't aware of any security updates, and the linkage you gave.

[|{urse]

Also the laptop models that have acpi fan control 'issues', all that repeated overheating is definitely not safe or good for your cpu/hardware.

Acer 5532 for example.

Other than that, be safe and informed and imho Ubuntu will meet you halfway in most all cases.

[Hungry Man]

There is security in theory and security in practice. Security in practice is a temporary state, it means nothing - you're in a negative state of "not being attacked". Security in theory is a matter of risk analysis and reactions to it, you are secure regardless of your state.

Most users really only care about being secure in practice. The wiki is there for those who want to be secure in theory.

[CharlesA]

There is security in theory and security in practice. Security in practice is a temporary state, it means nothing - you're in a negative state of "not being attacked". Security in theory is a matter of risk analysis and reactions to it, you are secure regardless of your state.

Most users really only care about being secure in practice. The wiki is there for those who want to be secure in theory.

This ^. That wiki page is still a good one, even if it is a bit "techy."

[QIII]

Your second to last comment is patently untrue.

You can quibble about the last item. The recent spate of Java exploits, although not technically "viruses", showed that even Linux is not safe and the Java vulnerability allowed targeting of Linux just as easily as Microsoft and Apple.

Guaranteeing 100% safety is, well, misleading and rather foolish.

[pkadeel]

Hi, could we, as a loCo, come with this promise for an out-of-the-box desktop system? Because of:
- Ubuntu has SUDO
- Ubuntu has TRUSTED SOFTWARE SOURCES
- Ubuntu has no significant listening services: NO OPEN PORTS
- Malware is written for Windows
- There are no Linux viruses active in "the wild"

I am aware of this excellent guide: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BasicSecurity with his myth and reality way of explaining security. But for an average beginner, it is technical, and deterrent.(imho)
How can we best inform en educate beginners in security related matters?
Is it just a "relax and enjoy", or is there more to say?

regards
S.

Just imagine that you live in a place where no other living being capable to hurt you (the viruses in Wild Wild Web) can be found within a radius of 200 miles. Would or should you consider your self 100% safe. What if you travel 200 miles just to invite a serial killer (a computer killer virus) for a dinner at your home. Should you consider the presence of a gun (an anti virus) in your pocket as a 100% safety measure.

[Soul-Sing]

Just imagine that you live in a place where no other living being capable to hurt you (the viruses in Wild Wild Web) can be found within a radius of 200 miles. Would or should you consider your self 100% safe. What if you travel 200 miles just to invite a serial killer (a computer killer virus) for a dinner at your home. Should you consider the presence of a gun (an anti virus) in your pocket as a 100% safety measure.

Exact the 200 miles? Not 300 miles? Sure?

[mike acker]

Hi, could we, as a loCo, come with this promise for an out-of-the-box desktop system? Because of:{snip}

How can we best inform en educate beginners in security related matters?
Is it just a "relax and enjoy", or is there more to say?

regards
S.

I think this is a Most Excellent question and I'd like to help in any way I can.

The First Thing I'd add to what we have now would be to put Firefox under AppArmor -- "out of the box" It's simple enough to disable the profile in case of trouble. I noticed that an AppArmor profile for Firefox came with Ubuntu

the profile came disabled. last night i enabled it and put it in complain mode. just now, checking, I got one error

Reading log entries from /var/log/syslog.
Updating AppArmor profiles in /etc/apparmor.d.

Profile:  /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird.sh
Execute:  /bin/which
Severity: unknown


(I)nherit / (P)rofile / (C)hild / (N)ame / (U)nconfined / (X)ix / (D)eny / Abo(r)t / (F)inish
bill@ACKER4:/etc/apparmor.d$

I didn't know what to do with this flag so I selected "Finish"; perhaps there will be a comment on this ??

A Study of hack attacks clearly shows that for the desk-top/client end-point computer, browser attacks are #1. E/mail would be #2 but these would include "phishing" attacks which attempt to persuade the user to make a bad move. This is another topic which requires a study of reputable sources and hopefully PGP Trust Models.

So: My initial contribution is (1) distribute Ubuntu with Firefox and Thunderbird under AppArmor, and (2) Caution every new user: stick to the stuff in the Ubuntu Software Library

I think if we do a little more work on Software Recommendations we can improve that last part.

This is really a very important thread. It has been 10 days now since I moved my Win7 system to the basement and shifted my daily activity to Ubuntu

So far the 2 programs that I feel I've had to take downgrades on are MusicBee and CDBurnerXP. I'm using Audacious and K3B

Offering a system that is difficult to hack and has good programs is huge. And I think we're getting there. Dell is already offering systems with Ubuntu installed,-- my brother's business selected that option!
~~~~~
Amendment

in protecting the browser we should ask: what are we protecting: "droppers" -- which attempt to install some kind of RAT into your O/S (Linux won't allow this ) -- or (2) snooping/exfiltrating sensitive data ? this latter will be a harder question as we must prevent installation of any type of plug-in modification to the browser