Re: OT: Educating users about Security

Dennis Kibbe said:
>
> Sounds like your Slackware box would do better used if it were turned
> into a firewall for the entire office. Look at smoothwall[1] or
> IPCOP[2].

I highly recommend IPCop. Smoothwall is good too but I found IPCop more
responsive to the community. YMMV.

Remember, a firewall is not a total solution. It keeps people outside
from connecting in or seeing the boxes on the inside. It does not, of
itself, stop malware email attachments or installation of spyware via web
site clicks or plug all security holes. But it goes a long way to solving
the problem. You still need a means of detecting or stopping malware that
a user installs via ignorance. That is where the SpyBot and Ad-Aware come
in, as Dennis also pointed out.

It is also possible to install additional filters on your firewall to
prevent users from visiting known bad sites (Dan's Guardian
[http://dansguardian.org/], which can be added to IPCopn
[http://firewalladdons.sourceforge.net/cop.html]) and preventing malware
that is inside the firewall from communicating out
(http://firewalladdons.sourceforge.net/blockouttraffic.html).

Don't be overwhelmed by all this. It is really not that hard. If you are
concerned, we can help here or schedule help at the next InstallFest to
get things going. Remember, the nice thing about this is that once you
have it setup, it just works with very little maintainence effort.

Alan



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