On Wed, 3 Jul 2002 13:20:40 Trevor Warren wrote:

I tried reverse lookin up this IP...but to no avail.

Reverse lookup fails for hosts behind firewalls and hosts with synamically assigned IPs.

I take these few steps for my system's security:

- No Telnet/FTP - SSH doesn't allow root login. You login as a normal user and su to - root. - Disable logins from all consoles except one, say, tty1 (check out /etc/securetty) - Some of the files like /etc/securetty should not be readable by 'others'. This is mostly a policy decision between user liberty and reduction in system vulnerability and I prefer to keep most files readable. However, it makes lot of sense to deny perms on files like /etc/securetty, /etc/lilo.conf and /etc/sysconfig/* - run an updated scanner like nessus periodically to check for vulnerabilities - keep a tab on security updates issued by the vendor of your distro

Finally refer to "Maximum Linux Security" by Anonymous for more exotic tips or read the "Securing and Optimizing Red Hat Linux" Guide on www.tldp.org

--- Tahir Hashmi (VSE, NCST) http://staff.ncst.ernet.in/tahir tahir AT ncst DOT ernet DOT in __________________________________ We, the rest of humanity, wish GNU luck and Godspeed

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