Linux Security: It’s Importance in Today’s World
In spite of several other operating systems gaining a huge monopoly in the market, Linux has always has its own fan following. Even today, many people are realizing the strategic important of Linux as an operating system.
There are several reasons for this – the quality is good, security is high and best of all, fixes are quick in a Linux system. More importantly, it is available for use by anyone and everyone who cares to use it because of the source code that’s freely available.
The ultimate goal of Linux is quality and that’s the reason, over the years bugs have been fixed, hacked and re-improved. Linux is the best testimony there is to Open Source technology – a trend being increasingly adopted by organizations across the globe.
Open Source offers flexibility and does not restrict any machine that chooses to use this technology. The ‘free for all’ characteristic of Linux makes it open for quick fixes and more security features being built. Single source technology, on the other hand, is more restrictive and has the potential hazard of being thrown open to security attacks. More and more companies are adopting Linux as their operating system simply because of the immense security it offers.
Advantages of Linux
You may be wondering what it is that sets Linux apart from so many other operating systems – the answer lies in the fundamental Open Source technology.
Freely distributed source code.
Linux source code is free for all to see, fix and improve upon. That makes Linux security truly global in nature. Programmers all across the globe continuously review this code to see how they can fix bugs and optimize performance on an ongoing basis.
Sound technical support.
Linux has a great network of distributors, users and developers who are more than ready to help you out with a bug or problem.
Durability.
Linux systems are extremely durable – and will often last long after even the hardware has failed the machine.
Compatibility.
Linux has a wide compatibility with almost all hardware and computer types such as Alpha, Power PC, 680×0, SPARC etc.
Non-restrictive.
Linux source code is free for all to fix. Therefore there are no vendor lock-ins or other such restrictive practices. Anyone and everyone can go to the source code and fix the root of the problem.
Low cost.
The wide range of tools, easy access and durability provides for really low maintenance and operational costs. This makes it more suitable for organizations, especially small sized start ups.
Getting your enterprise Linux ready
Most enterprises today are faced with an increasing threat of security hazards and virus attacks. While Linux is equally susceptible to such attacks, there is an implicit assurance of getting fixes to such problems rapidly. Therefore recovery is fast and simple, resulting in minimal losses to the enterprise.
More and more organizations are adopting the Open Source Linux model. There are plenty of agencies that help enterprises pick the right Linux model to address their unique needs. With built in Linux security and a host of other features, enterprises can now afford to sit back and relax.
Gary Terrazas is an online marketing consultant who promotes his clients websites like http://www.synaq.co.za online through industry specific articles
Linux Operated Devices: Now In The Market
The OpenMoko-based FIC Neo1973 is “the World’s First Integrated Open Source Mobile Communications Platform”, the smartphone is expected to compete against the Windows Mobile, Palm, Symbian and now OS X operating systems on mobile phones. Based on the initial specs, it will be released with EDGE, like the iPhone, instead of the faster 3G or HSDPA , I am having doubts if Europe and Asia will find it interesting.
Also, Motorola is showcasing their MotoRIZR K6 as a mobile phone that runs “New Linux operating system that incorporates kJava.” They also introduced two Linux-based mobile phones. Linux and Java will be running in some models of the “Razr2″ and “Rokr”. LinuxDevices has reported, that the Razr2 will come with the following features: “Crystal-talk” adaptive technology for auto audio volume adjustment. The talking phone features for use by the blind, in cars, etc. Auto answers SMS, 2MP camera and the use of personal video-conferencing. On the other hand, the MotoRokr Z6 will be the “first Linux phone to support all of Microsoft’s Windows Media technologies.” This news comes as a welcome surprise considering that Motorola used to deliver Linux-based phones mostly in Asia. The deployment of Linux-based Motorola phones in the US will help get more developers to support it. I wonder how it will affect the OpenMoko initiative.
Another Linux-based phone gets announced. This is based on a report on Gupp Technologies’ Phreedom VoIP phone which has GSM support running on Linux. Phreedom sports a Treo-style QWERTY keyboard, 2.5″ 320×240 256K-color display, GSM+GPRS, 320MB memory and 5 hours of talk time in its WiFi mode. One would wonder why there are different Linux-based mobile platforms but there seems none that can support 3G or HSDPA *and* wifi and VoIP in one device.
Let us move on to other devices. Linux is still playing catch-up in as far as hardware is concerned. However, pcHDTV, this is a company that makes HDTV tuner cards, that seems to concentrate on Linux only. At US$129, it sure is an affordable solution for Linux.
It was a surprise to find out that a particular Linux-based digital video recorder is from my home country, the Philippines. The company, called Neugent, created a digital video capture card and packaged it as a surveillance/security dvr system. Whilst the product looks really promising, it would have been better if they release the video capture cards as a separate PC add-on card.
The author writes about linux photoshop and blogs at http://www.hackitlinux.com/.
New Releases For Linux Flavors
Red Hat released its “Core”-less Community Linux distribution, Fedora, now on version 7. You can get the distribution via Bit Torrent, direct download or doing a network install.
This is also the first release that comes in different sub-versions or spins, GNOME and KDE desktop environment based bootable live images that can be installed to a hard disk. These spins are meant for desktop users who prefer a single disk installation and for sharing Fedora with friends, family, and event attendees. There is a regular image for desktops, workstations, and server users. This spin provides a good upgrade path and similar environment for users of previous releases of Fedora. The set of DVD images which includes all software available in the Fedora repository.
This spin is intended for distribution to users who do not have broadband Internet access and prefer to have software available on disc. Expect improvements on performance, desktop use and administration.
Just recently, Red Hat Enterprise Linux added a feather on its cap by getting approval for EAL4 Augmented with ALC_FLR-3 certification. The certification was awarded by the National Information Assurance Partnership’s (NIAP) Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme for IT Security program, making Red Hat Enterprise Linux at par with Sun’s Trusted Solaris operating system.
Personally, this just proves that open source can provide a safe and secure environment, contrary to the fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) that have been circulating. Now, I wonder when Ubuntu will get its certification.
Going to the other flavors, Ubuntu released version 7.0.4, code-named Feisty Fawn, last Thursday. This same code-base becomes the basis for Kubuntu, a KDE-based Ubuntu version, and Edubuntu, Ubuntu for Education. This new release also introduces Sun’s products as part of the package. Sun included Netbeans 5.5, Java 6, GlassFish Java Application Server and Java DB. Java application development became first class citizen on Ubuntu. Being one of the Sun Java Champions, I welcome this new addition. If only I can install Ubuntu 7.0.4 as a guest OS on Parallels Desktop running on my Mac OS X.
Debian is one of the major Linux distributions available today. With some recent changes in the Debian leadership with Sam Hocevar getting elected as its leader, version 4, code-named “Etch”, has officially been released.
If you are using one of the Debian-based distributions such as Linspire/Freespire, Knoppix and Ubuntu, I recommend that you wait for the update. It is inevitable.
The author writes about linux photoshop and blogs at http://www.hackitlinux.com/.
What To Do If Linux Refuses To Boot
This deals with what action is to be taken (during a reboot) after a power failure or an incomplete shutdown of a Linux system due to any reason. This problem seems to be very common since many newcomers install Linux and get all the various softwares/hardwares working under Linux and suddenly one day the power fails. There are a few things that you can try to get Linux back on track..
1. While rebooting, Linux may print a message saying that there is a problem with the file system and it might force a check. It would do this for all Linux partitions. If the checks (they generally take around 30-60 seconds. also displays a rotating indicator) are successful then you are lucky. Linux should mostly continue booting and you should be back in business soon. If this is what happens then you may be under an impression that a direct switch off of a Linux machine leads to no problems. Please note that you were just lucky that you got away without any major problems.
2. While rebooting, Linux may not be successful in any of the file system checks. In this case, the booting stops abruptly with a message stating that you should run fsck manually without a few parameters. Once you reach the hash prompt (#) then run the fsck command as mentioned (fsck -a -p /dev/hdaX). The fsck command requires the partition which it has to check. So if you have installed Linux on /dev/hda1 then you have to run fsck as follows: fsck -a -p /dev/hda1.
When you run fsck it would mostly find some inode problems and ask you whether you want to fix them, Select the default option (yes). It would do so for all the problems found. Once this is over you can restart the machine using either “Ctlr+Alt+Del” or “shutdown -r 0″, whichever works. Now this time your Linux machine should boot properly.
3. It has so happened that once when the power failed, Linux simple failed to boot on my machine. It gave no errors at all, but the init process would just not get initiated. It would find my partitions, mount the ext2 file system as read only and then would simply display a prompt. Even with this prompt I wasn’t able to do a lot. Also I noticed that a few of the default directories were missing on the native partition. The only solution that I found to this was to Reinstall Linux.
Note: While reinstalling, the best and safest way for the above problem would be to insert the installation media (Redhat Linux 6.1 CD). And instead of selecting to install the OS once again, select to upgrade the existing installation. This would effectively replace all the damages areas of the OS and would also retain all your personal data and configurations in Linux (This should work in almost all cases).
Hence I would always advice an upgrade to the same version (If you originally had Redhat Linux 6.1, insert the CD and once again select to upgrade to Redhat Linux 6.1 itself). If the upgrade option doesn’t fix the problem, then you would have to do a reinstall after a reformat of the Linux partitions.
4. In one case when Linux refused to boot I noticed that a few of the main files / directories were missing. I found that the /sbin directory (which is a very important directory) wasn’t there in the root directory. I performed a search for this directory and found it to be within another directory. After some discussion I realized that my friend has accidentally moved this directory within his GUI when he was working in superuser mode. As long as he was working a few commands didn’t work but he did not bother about finding out why they didn’t work. Once he rebooted his machine the absence of this directory hung the booting process. So I suggest that you never work in superuser mode unless absolutely necessary. Even within the superuser mode prefer the shell, since you can hardly ever do anything accidentally in the shell. In my friend’s case I simply moved that directory back within the root directory and Linux booted without any problems.
Take the time to have a look at the file system and make a mental note of the directory structure which appears to be pretty complex.
The author writes about linux tip and blogs at http://www.hackitlinux.com/.