There are many reasons to keep Linux cyber security servers safe, and keeping them safe is much harder than Windows machines. There are several ways to make sure your Linux system stays safe.

Linux cyber security 2022

How to secure Linux systems?

There are many reasons to keep Linux servers safe, and keeping them safe is much harder than Windows machines. There are several ways to make sure your Linux system stays safe, however, and they fall under three categories: hardening the system, patching the system, and securing the data.

The first step to making sure that your system is secure is to ensure you know what kind of system you have. As we mentioned earlier, Linux distributions come in two forms: Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Ubuntu. We'll start with RHEL, since that's where we started our journey before.

If you're unfamiliar with RHEL, it runs on top of Red Hat's enterprise-grade software packages. In short, it provides a complete operating system that includes everything you need to run your business. If you need to install custom software onto your server, you'll have to do it yourself. If you want to update your OS, you can do that either via a service pack or directly from the manufacturer. You won't find any third party services like Microsoft updates or Apple software updates here—the only way to get these is to pay for them.

Like a lot of businesses, if you've got a web server running something like Word Press, then you'll want to make sure that it's secured. Running a vulnerable version of Word Press can leave you wide open to hackers who can compromise your site. In order to fix that, you'll need to update the software, and this means installing the latest version of PHP, MySQL, and Apache. Even the newest versions aren't perfect though, so you may still want to check out some of the following additional steps to further protect your system.

Hardening Your Server

You can use a couple different approaches to harden your system. For example, you might upgrade the kernel version on your machine, remove unnecessary applications, or change default settings. When it comes to removing applications, you should avoid using anything that wasn't included in the distribution that came with the server (for example, if you downloaded Centos 6, don't try to install Gnome Desktop). Not only does it add unneeded bloat ware to the system, but it might also prevent you from accessing certain features, such as access to remote desktop functionality. Other things you might consider removing include the X Window System, Samba, or Open SSH. Of course, you'll still need to keep SSH enabled, since it's not just a great tool for remote management, but it's also a necessary component of security.

To harden your system even more, you could go ahead and disable Linux altogether. If you're willing to risk losing access to certain tools, this is definitely the best option. However, disabling Linux isn't something you can just do once; you need to re-enable it after you finish updating your system. To do this, you'll need to edit the configuration file and set the variable LINUX disabled.

To help you along the way, we've put together a few helpful guides that cover topics like how to lock down user permissions, manage firewall rules, and troubleshoot networking issues.

Patch Your System

Once you've gone through the trouble of hardening your system, the next thing you need to do is apply patches for known vulnerabilities. If you haven't already done so, download the most recent version of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) or GCC compiler suite for your release of Linux. Then, download the appropriate package containing updated security fixes. For example, if your system is running RHEL 5.8, then you'd download gcc-5.8.0-10.el5_8.x86_64.rpm. Make sure to follow the instructions provided by RPM Fusion on how to install the package. Alternatively, you can also download the Fedora Security Update repository and search for specific CVE numbers.

Securing the Data

Now that you've patched your system, you should move on to securing your data. For starters, you should make sure that any sensitive information is stored offline. That means that you would store it on a separate disk drive, USB stick, or networked storage device. Once you've moved your sensitive files off of the primary drive, encrypt them using strong encryption methods like AES 256 bit, which is supported natively in both Debian and Red Hat. Finally, you should backup your data regularly. Regular backups will allow you to restore your data quickly in case of disaster.