Best practices for securing ubuntu 12.04 laptop

[jsvidyad]

Hello,

I am planning to install ubuntu 12.04 on my laptop. What I usually do for security is to lock the root account, edit the file /etc/hosts.deny and add the line ALL: ALL , set up a firewall (ufw/Gufw in this case) with default rules of Incoming:Deny, Outgoing:Allow. Is this enough for providing reasonable security for my laptop? If you have ideas about what else I can do to secure the planned ubuntu 12.04 installation on my laptop, please let me know.

[CharlesA]

Root is disable by default, by the way.

If you have the firewall set to block incoming connections, I doubt there is a need for DenyHosts.

[kevdog]

If there are no running services on your laptop (which there are not by default) there isn't any point to set the default input chain to deny. Wouldn't it be better to run noscript or equivalent from the browser?

[Soul-Sing]

consider your laptop as an usb stick with some extra's, so: encryption, encryption, encryption==> home, or better the entire disk.

[CharlesA]

consider your laptop as an usb stick with some extra's, so: encryption, encryption, encryption==> home, or better the entire disk.

Pretty much. That is doubly important if you travel with your laptop.

Which doesn't stop me from not doing it. >.>

[JessicaTsang]

Root is disable by default, by the way.

If you have the firewall set to block incoming connections, I doubt there is a need for DenyHosts.

Everytime I restart my computer, I have to load up the firewall configuration again to turn it on. Is there a way where I don't have to do this at all?

[jsvidyad]

Everytime I restart my computer, I have to load up the firewall configuration again to turn it on. Is there a way where I don't have to do this at all?

Are you using a ufw/Gufw firewall ?

[jsvidyad]

Hello,

I think my first post wasn't too clear. I wasn't asking about securing physical security of my laptop. I was asking about protecting my laptop from intruders over the internet and preventing them from taking over the ubuntu 12.04 installation on my laptop or being able to access my personal files in my home directory on the laptop.

[CharlesA]

Hello,

I think my first post wasn't too clear. I wasn't asking about securing physical security of my laptop. I was asking about protecting my laptop from intruders over the internet and preventing them from taking over the ubuntu 12.04 installation on my laptop or being able to access my personal files in my home directory on the laptop.

As long as you don't install any remote access software like SSH or VNC, you should be fine.

Enable your firewall too.

[jsvidyad]

What does adding the line
ALL: ALL

to my /etc/hosts.deny file actually do ? What does it accomplish?