Ubuntu Desktop Security Primer

You weren't born yesterday. You know what a firewall is. You know what anti-virus software is. You know what a man page is, and you've Googled more times than you can count. Let's keep this simple, shall we?

Firewall

Ubuntu includes ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) by default. And by default, it is turned off. Turn it on:

$ sudo ufw enable
Firewall is active and enabled on system startup

Congratulations. Your computer is now wrapped in electronic cellophane.

Anti-Virus

Most viruses are still targeted at Windows, but the paranoid can never be too careful. Here is the version for those with short attention spans.

• Install it:

  $ sudo apt-get install clamav

• Update it:

  $ sudo freshclam

• Run it:

  $ sudo clamscan / -ir --exclude-dir=^/sys --exclude-dir=^/proc --detect-pua

If you'd like a GUI, check out ClamTk.