Security Practices

Introduction

By default, the culture of the free software movement advocates proper security practices. There are certain tools and practices which help people to ensure such use cases in their daily life. Below are different paradigms of security practices.

By design, proprietary software is unsecure as the code is not open to the public. We strongly promote GNU/Linux operating system distributions which are more secure as the software is collectively developed with code open to the public.

• Proprietary software is often malware

Operating System

Debian GNU/Linux Operating system - This OS an outcome of a collective ecosystem where people around the world package applications in a massive scale. We strongly recommend using this OS in the personal computers.

• Debian Wiki

Password Managers - Passwords are easily crackable with bruteforce mechanisms. We recommend to use strong Passphrases. Also, use free software password managers like Bitwarden, Keepassxc etc.

2-Factor Authentication (2FA)- For all types authentication, we recommend to set up use 2FA. Use free software OTP services like FreeOTP.

De-googlyfying Smartphones

Degooglifying of Smartphone is so simple by Removing Google play services which comes inbuilt with your smartphone's Stock ROM. There are different ways but most preferred is to Flash your device with Community built Cyanogen mod which is later called as Lineage Os or its forks like Reserruction Remix. Steps to Flash and Degooglify your device:

1.Know your device codename

2.Install ADB(Android Debug Tools) and Fastboot

3.Unlock the device(Steps Vary from each manufacturer)

4.Flash the Recovery(TWRP is Recommended)

5.Install ROM

6.Your device is now degooglifies.

There are open Gapps which are sometimes pre-installed with custom ROMS, make sure to not have them.

Encrypted Communication

In the view of mass surveillance there's only one question, how do we send confidential data over the web. To answer this question, most of the communications happens via chat platforms and emails. Big tech companies like Google and Facebook are mass surveillance engines, there is no way that they can respect the user's privacy as they commodify data by selling to advertise agencies. Thus, as a community we need to enable the encrypted communication.

Signal is the encrypted chat platform. Starting from chats to calls both video and audio are encrypted by default.

When we look at email encryption, use free software mail clients like thunderbird (PCs), k9-mail (smartphones) etc. Next, we need to build the trust on the web with Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). In order to do so, use tools like OpenPGP.