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LJ Staff — Wed, 05 Apr 2017 11:40:59 +0000

Secure Server Deployments in Hostile Territory; Preseeding Full Disk Encryption; Own Your Own DNS; Learn How-to Secure Desktops with Qubes; What's New In 3D Printing

Secure Server Deployments in Hostile Territory
Would you change what you said on the phone, if you knew someone malicious was listening? Whether or not you view the NSA as malicious, I imagine that after reading the NSA coverage on Linux Journal, some of you found yourselves modifying your behavior. The same thing happened to me when I started deploying servers into a public cloud (EC2 in my case).

In this article, I discuss some of the techniques I use to secure servers when they are in hostile territory. Although some of these techniques are specific to EC2, most are adaptable to just about any environment.

Preseeding Full Disk Encryption
Usually I try to write articles that are not aimed at a particular distribution. Although I may give examples assuming a Debian-based distribution, whenever possible, I try to make my instructions applicable to everyone. This is not going to be one of those articles. Here, I document a process I went through recently with Debian preseeding (a method of automating a Debian install, like kickstart on Red Hat-based systems) that I found much more difficult than it needed to be, mostly because documentation was so sparse. In fact, I really found only two solid examples to work from in my research, one of which referred to the other.

Own Your Own DNS
I honestly think most people simply are unaware of how much personal data they leak on a daily basis as they use their computers. Even if they have some inkling along those lines, I still imagine many think of the data they leak only in terms of individual facts, such as their name or where they ate lunch. What many people don't realize is how revealing all of those individual, innocent facts are when they are combined, filtered and analyzed.

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