October 13, 2008, 11:02 am
The self-signed certificate is a certificate that you can create yourself that will provide SSL encryption but without the verification of your website from an outside source. The outside verification does cost money. In other words, you can get the protection you need, encryption by doing it yourself. One thing to note, if you are taking people’s credit card information then you will need to get a signed certificate as a warning appears when you are using self-signed certificates.
Continue reading ‘Setup SSL on Apache’ »
July 2, 2008, 1:55 pm
We can have the most secure box in the world but that doesn’t mean necessarily that we’re safe. There are a lot of interested parties in the world that want your information and the list of who those interested parties are grows by the day. Looking for a job? Well, the companies you’re applying to are running Google searches on your real name, your email address, and any screenname you may have given them, looking you up at LinkedIn, Myspace, Facebook, etc. Making online purchases? Well, both the identity thief and the government would love to track those transactions. Searching for information related to an embarrassing situation in your personal life? Google saves those searches. Like to show off your musical tastes on Last.fm? Congrats, you’re probably broadcasting a good portion of the music you’ve pirated. Logging in to a site to pay a bill? There’s a cracker out there that would love for your password to be transmitted in plain text, rather than encrypted. And lets not forget the fact that AT&T spies on the American populace for the NSA, MPAA, RIAA, and probably any other organization that asked it to. Even if you truly trust a company, you never know what information of yours could be handed over in a lawsuit. Think you’re hidden behind a screen-name? Think again.
I should give a little warning, I do suggest people follow all of these tips, but they are for the paranoid and some will consider it over board.
Related Reading on TuxTraining.com
- Secure the Hell Out of Your Linux box
- Secure the Hell Out of Your Windows box
- The Ultimate SSH Security Tutorial
- How to Install and Setup IPCop as your Linux based router
Continue reading ‘Safety Online’ »
