Securing a computer goes beyond more than just using strong passwords. You should consider what happens if an unauthorized person gains physical access to your computer. If the only security feature protecting your data from an unauthorized person is a user account password, then you have not taken enough steps to protect your computer and your data.

Disk encryption is one method you may use to enhance the physical security rating of your computer. From my experience, it is rarely used, which is a shame because it is one of the most effective safeguards against unauthorized physical access to data stored on a computer.

Disk encryption is one of several physical security measures that could be used to protect data on your computer from unauthorized physical access. And it is best configured during installation, not after. But once configured, how effective is it?

What happens if someone gains unauthorized, physical access to your computer? Even with all the fancy firewall and other network security tools running, If the disk is not encrypted, check mate! Your data is now shared. This short tutorial shows you how Fedora implements disk encryption and how that protects your computer if it ever falls into the wrong hands.

Fedora is one of very few distributions that does not have the auto-login feature in its graphical user management tool. Auto-login allows the system to automatically login a user without requesting authentication, that is, it enables password-less logins. While it is a very convenient feature, it is a security risk. Why?

Like other Unix-like computer operating systems, Linux is widely considered as secured and well-guarded against computer viruses. Its multi-user environment makes it extremely hard for malware to gain root access to the system files.Though malicious programs that are specifically written for Linux are really small in number, there is still a possibility for them to cause some harm.

Password-protecting the bootloader is one method you may employ to enhance the physical security profile of your computer. GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader, is the default bootloader on virtually all Linux distributions, but on a significant number, the installer does not have support for setting a GRUB password.

Sure, but what good is not losing your data if an unauthorized party can access it just as easily and readily as you can.

Disk encryption is not something most personal computer users think of when they consider ways to boost the security profile of their computer. A firewall? Yes, that in the minds of most is what computer security is all about. However, a firewall is a network security tool, and it is useless if your computer is lost or stolen. That is when disk encryption comes into play.