[ale] PT1 - ale OT Need to lock down a Windows laptop / (OR Linux)

[JD]

On 06/26/2011 04:58 AM, Ron Frazier wrote:
> TO my friends reading this and running Linux.  It is no longer true that 
> Linux users don't have to worry about security and viruses, if it was 
> ever true.  Now, the risk level may not be as great as Windows, but it 
> is there, and will increase as the usage numbers increase.  Here, I 
> detail a number of steps to secure windows.  However, many of them are 
> cross platform, and usable on Linux too.  I detail which ones can be 
> done on Linux as well.  When I give instructions for Linux, I'm 
> referring to Ubuntu 10.04, which is all I know.  Users of other versions 
> will have to adapt.  Trey's original inquiry is copied at the bottom.
> 

<snip>

Much of that was good info, however, I disagree with loading Adobe
Reader (the free PDF tool) on any platform. There are alternatives which
work as well, and don't have the entire Chinese and Ukrainian criminal
underground trying to hack. On Windows there are choices like
PDF-Xchange and for Linux, well, use your package manager.

No PDF viewer is 100% safe, especially if left in the default
configuration. The Adobe versions, which almost nobody actually needs,
are the worse, IMHO.  Only a corporate PDF user **may** need the full
PDF-suite from Adoboe on Windows, nobody at home does. Definitely use
any alternative.

I'm still looking for a PDF markup editor on Linux (add text,
highlighting, sticky notes, etc) - the free PDF-Xchange on Windows does
support the commonly needed "edit" markups to PDF documents. Anyone have
an option?

I'd say the same about Adobe-Flash (use a non-Adobe alternative), but I
haven't found any alternative that work well enough to replace the Adobe
version of Flash. In the meantime, we can block Flash by default and
only enable it for the specific websites using NoScript. Sure, that's a
hassle, but so is constantly dealing with viruses, malware and worse.