There are many benefits provided by the internet, however, it also introduced new risks and challenges. The threat to our privacy is one of the most common and notable risks users have to face online. Many users have the belief that their browser, search engine, and antivirus programs are protected, but rarely is enough actually being done. This article will discuss some great security tools that can help protect your privacy online.
How To Keep Your IP From Being Tracked
There are a few different ways that websites and apps can track users. Four commonly used methods that websites use to track visitors include IP addresses, permissions, emails, and search history. Despite data breaches and website tracking making browsing the internet safely seem impossible, you have control over your information, and there are ways to protect yourself including:
- Use Browser Add-Ons To Identify Trackers: consider browser add-ons and extensions that you can use to avoid being tracked. If you are switching browsers, make sure that you get additional security and privacy measures for all the browsers you use.
- Use Different Passwords And Update Them: passwords can be hacked and bypassed so it’s essential to change your passwords frequently. Make sure to choose a complex password and never use the same password across multiple accounts.
- Use Services That Remove Data From Brokers: use services to remove your data from any brokers or listings. If you keep getting spam calls, obnoxious ads, or even spam emails, the chances are that your name is on a list somewhere that’s available to these businesses or individuals.
How To Avoid Being Tracked Online
Typically websites, apps, or browsers collect data to improve the user experience. In certain cases where your data is shared with other third parties, your information may be sold and there are also malicious actors that track your online behavior with the intent to create attacks such as phishing or ransomware. Below are precautions you can take to maintain online anonymity.
Use a Private Browser, Incognito Mode, And Don’t Allow Tracking
Consider private browsers or browsers that specify that they don’t track users as well as using all your selected browsers in incognito mode. Although on its own, incognito mode cannot guarantee you won’t get tracked, combined with other methods can make it more difficult to be tracked.
Use Privacy Settings and Permissions Carefully
It is crucial that you review your privacy settings and permissions and make sure that your social media accounts are set to private as public data can be collected and tracked. Additionally, check that you enable the ‘Do Not Track’ option in the settings of the browsers you use.
Disable Social Media Tracking
Clicking on the share buttons found on other websites allows social media to gather information on you. To ensure that you aren’t being tracked you need to disable social media tracking. You can start this process by disabling all permissions from your social media account settings.
Use an Encrypted and Anonymous OS
Consider a secure, encrypted operating system (OS) such as Tails, a Linux Live Image, that can ensure complete privacy and online anonymity. Tails is an encrypted, private OS that includes other privacy tools on a tiny device. This device, once connected to your PC will change the OS to Tails.
Onion Routing and Tor
By 2004, the theory of “onion routing” as a way to anonymize internet traffic was integrated into a publicly available open-source browser known as Tor. Tor allows users to browse the internet privately with onion routing, a process in which a user’s internet traffic is routed through several layers of a network relay, similar to an onion. By encrypting traffic and passing it through several servers, only the user and the destination can read the data.
Securing Your Linux System
When looking to improve the security of your system, the first step is ensuring it is properly configured and up-to-date. Next, implement the following necessary tools to keep you safe.
SELinux
Implementing Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) is a highly fine-grained and fairly technical mandatory access control (MAC) system that restricts access beyond what traditional discretionary access control (DAC) methods such as file permissions or access control lists (ACLs) can achieve. Stringent access controls are crucial when preventing malicious actors from gaining administrative access to your system and installing various types of malware. Because of this, SELinux has been adopted by multiple popular Linux distros including Fedora, Ubuntu, and Debian, and is typically enabled by default.
Linux Kernel Runtime Guard
Linux Kernel Runtime Guard (LKRG) is a kernel module that performs runtime integrity checking of the Linux kernel to detect security vulnerability exploits against the kernel. LKRG attempts to post-detect and rapidly respond to unauthorized kernel modifications or changes to the credentials of running system processes. This protects against exploits gaining unauthorized root access through kernel vulnerabilities and other threats to the security of a Linux system.
Privacy Badger Extension
Privacy Badger is a free and open-source browser extension that prevents advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking the web pages you visit and your actions online. Privacy Badger blocks advertisements and tracking cookies that violate the Do Not Track header on outgoing requests. The add-on automatically prevents an advertiser from being able to load any further content in your web browser.
Security Audits
Frequently testing and verifying its security is the only way to be sure your system is as well protected as it should be. Conduct regular security audits to identify any gaps in your security defenses to better protect your server against vulnerabilities and attacks.
The Bottom Line
While threats to the security and privacy of Linux systems are at an all-time high, Linux users have a series of tools at their disposal to keep them safe. Security is of utmost importance in any computer system. By following best practices and implementing the best tools, you can easily keep your systems secure.
