During security audits, sysadmins will often have to set up new servers or harden existing server passwords. As a result, secure passwords have to be chosen for SFTP, admin panels, etc. Many practices make a server secure, but often neglected is using secure passwords. Notice that I didn’t include SSH or MySQL root passwords above. […]
How to Convert OpenSSH keys to Putty (.ppk) on Linux
PuTTYgen is a key generator for creating SSH keys for PuTTY. PuTTYgen is comparable in certain respects to the ssh-keygen tool. PuTTYgen can create public and private key pairs (in .ppk file format). In addition, PuTTYgen can also be used to convert keys to and from other formats. On Windows, PuTTYGen is a graphical tool. […]
5 Network Devices for work-from-home and Small Business 2023
Over the past few years, we’ve seen a mass migration from the work office to the home office. This continues to increase the requirements for better home network security, capacity, and additional capabilities. Small business and work-from-home networks must be more performant, reliable, accountable, and easier to manage. As such, network devices designed for consumers […]
How to Enable Unattended Upgrades on Ubuntu/Debian
Linux server security is of critical importance to sysadmins. One central part of keeping Linux servers secure is by installing security updates promptly. Too often, there are compromised servers on the internet due to pending security updates waiting for a manual update. On both Ubuntu and Debian, the unattended-upgrades package can be configured to perform […]
Enable Automatic Updates – Fedora/Red Hat + Bonus Tip
Linux server security is crucial to Linux server administration. Part of keeping Linux servers secure is installing security updates shortly after they become available. Too often, compromised servers are a result of pending security updates awaiting manual installation. In general, for critical servers where you cannot afford unplanned downtime should be very careful with automatic updates. While there are […]
Improving OpenVPN performance and throughput
OpenVPN, Wireguard, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP, IKEv2, PPTP, or others. If you had the luxury of choosing, which VPN protocols would you use? Therein lies my problem. In my current use case, I must find a way to improve OpenVPN performance and throughput. You may have been following my Linux home lab build. One of the most […]
50 Top ‘Internet of Things’ Security Solutions
A couple of months back, I decided to maintain a list of companies that offer IoT (internet of things) security tools and solutions which you can find below. Feel free to share your solutions, feedback, and tips for securing IoT devices. In the future, I will update this list continuously. A few key questions arose […]
Firewalla Blue Plus Review by Ben Isai
I’d like to start off by thanking @hydn for the opportunity to enter and win this FWB+. Background I really enjoy homelabbing and playing with Linux (Servers/Networking devices). I have a few mini PCs, Raspberry Pis and other devices around the house that I thinker’ with. In 2020, I discovered Firewalla, and this company had everything I wanted, a beautiful phone […]
Nginx tuning tips: HTTPS/TLS – Turbocharge TTFB/Latency
Are you looking to optimize the performance of Nginx? One way to do so is by tuning Nginx, to support the latest TLS (Transport Layer Security) protocols (TLS 1.2 & TLS 1.3). In this article, we’ll explore how optimizing Nginx’s TLS and SSL config can reduce Time To First Byte (TTFB) latency and turbocharge website […]
78% of the web powered by PHP (3% on PHP 8)
Today, PHP is used by almost 78% of all the websites whose server-side programming language we know. Popular websites such as Slack, Etsy, Wikipedia, WordPress, Mailchimp, Canva, Indeed, Investing.com, and others are powered by PHP. However, in the coming months, many websites that fail to upgrade to the latest version of PHP 8 will be […]