My Story: Feeling Secure
I must admit, the first time I installed a Linux distribution I had that strange feeling of something missing. It took me a few minutes to identify it since I had so many things to discover and understand with this new experience. Then, suddenly, a shocking cold wave passed through my body. A firewall, an anti-virus …fast…fast. Desperate, panicked I’ve started a two fast two furious search using Google, for a Linux firewall and an anti-virus.
Written by Mike B
Google is good, but not when you’re really sweating cold.
“Let’s be calm. There is no hurry. No need to do damage by using something you don’t know.” Yeah, I was kind of right, but Linux was such a thrill. I felt that I had discovered something new, really big, I was entering in a whole new world.
I used Google, calmly this time, and the first thing I noticed is that there were a lot of people with responses of the type: “an anti-virus for Linux? Nah, I don’t use one. A firewall for Linux? There's already one built in”. Since this experience with the new OS to enjoy, I’ve used Linux for days and days, without booting into my Windows installation. But still, even though I knew that I was working in a possibly secure environment, I still had that feeling of something missing, and in some cases, especially when reading all that news about security and holes and bugs and, and... I had a feeling of insecurity too. The calm of the KDE desktop... no Zone Alarm or Kasperksy alerts, no daily anti-virus updates, it was a stress I couldn't handle. “The syndrome of the desktop calm”, that’s what I called it. Maybe I had invented a new mental problem, whatever it was. I was suffering from it. Even friends more experienced than I was admitted to experiencing it as well. Was there no cure for it.
I was conscious that I was secure, but that feeling was still there a month later. I’d see myself opening new search pages in the middle of other tasks, searching again and again on the same arguments almost unconsciously.
Then one day I discovered two packages that finally brought me peace: Firestarter is just a frontend for Iptables, the built in firewall, which allows you to apply some rules easier and watch your traffic. It has also some alerts, and a red flashing light, my saviour. And then Clamav so I could scan ports! Even if there was no real-time protection. What did these packages offer me? Not much. But seeing those small icons was what my mind wanted. t was a fake feeling, but it was my cure!
